GIFT   OF 


General  Wood  and  His  Family 

Taken  while  his  two  sons  were  in  uniform  during  the  World  War. 
Left  to  right,  standing:  Lieut.  Osborn  Wood,  Miss  Louise  Wood, 
Captain  Leonard  Wood,  Jr.  Sitting:  Mrs.  Wood  and  General  Wood. 


THE    LIFE    OF 

LEONARD    WOOD 

BY 
JOHN  G.  HOLME 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

FROM 
PHOTOGRAPHS 


GARDEN  CITY  NEW  YORK 

DOUBLEDAY,    PAGE    &    COMPANY 

1920 


COPYRIGHT,  1920,  BY 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

ALL  BIGHTS  RESERVED,  INCLUDING  THAT  OF 

TRANSLATION  INTO  FOREIGN  LANGUAGES, 

INCLUDING  THE  SCANDINAVIAN 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I .  EAKLY  BOYHOOD  AND  SCHOOL  DAYS        .  3 

II .  SOLDIER  AND  SURGEON 1£ 

III .  WITH  CLEVELAND  AND  McKiNLEY    .      .  27 

IV .  COMMANDER  OF  THE  ROUGH  RIDERS        .  44 
V .  THE  RESCUER  OP  SANTIAGO    ....  55 

VI.  GOVERNOR  AND  BUSINESS  MANAGER  OF 

CUBA 81 

VII .  PACIFIER  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES      .      .      .  135 

VIII .  CHIEF-OF-STAFF  OF  THE  U.  S.  ARMY       .  153 

IX .  THE  AWAKENER  OF  THE  NATION          .        .  177 

X.  THE  CHAMPION  OF  LAW  AND  ORDER       .  £07 


412100 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

General  Wood  and  His  Fanuly       .      Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

At  a  Flower  Show  in  New  York      ....       20 


As  a  Rough  Rider  in  Cuba,  and  as  Governor- 
General   116 

In  Camp  at  Pittsburgh 180 


INTRODUCTION 

NEVER  since  the  Civil  War  have  the  Ameri 
can  people  been  in  greater  need  of  strong  and  in 
telligent  leadership  than  to-day.  The  period  of 
reconstruction,  about  which  we  began  to  talk  soon 
after  we  entered  the  late  war,  is  now  upon  us  with 
problems  more  complex  and  grave  than  any  with 
which  the  nation  has  had  to  grapple  since  the  days 
of  the  secession.  The  administration,  which  in 
the  summer  of  1914  commanded  us  to  remain 
"neutral  in  thought"  and  two  years  later  sought 
endorsement  under  the  slogan  that  it  had  "kept 
us  out  of  war,"  subsequently  informed  us  that  this 
world  would  be  a  different  and  a  better  one  after  it 
had  been  made  "safe  for  democracy." 

This  is  indeed  a  different  world  from  that  of  a 
few  years  ago,  but  most  of  us  are  convinced  that, 
whatever  its  faults,  we  at  least  live  in  the  best  part 
thereof.  Behind  that  conviction,  however,  arises 
an  apprehension,  born  of  events  during  the  past 
year,  of  impending  attacks  on  the  most  cherished 
institutions  of  our  republic.  When  law  and  order 
are  defied,  when  the  authority  of  the  central 

vii 


viii  Introduction 

government  is  challenged  by  organized  groups 
whose  avowed  aim  is  to  establish  internationalism 
by  the  destruction  of  nationalism,  it  becomes  easy 
to  understand  why  the  American  people  at  this 
time  are  looking  anxiously  toward  their  future 
security  and  displaying  profound  interest  in  that 
group  of  national  leaders  from  which  most  prob 
ably  will  be  chosen  the  next  President  of  the 
United  States.  The  late  war,  the  greatest  in 
history,  has  left  the  world  a  legacy  of  social  and 
economic  problems  more  grave  and  troublesome 
than  the  problems  of  any  other  period  in  modern 
times.  It  will  devolve  on  the  next  administra 
tion  to  solve  at  least  some  of  these  problems  and 
to  shape  a  wise  policy  which  will  lead  to  the  solu 
tion  of  others. 

Hundreds  of  millions  of  men  and  women  in 
America  and  in  Europe  have  been  released  from  a 
titanic  struggle  which  cost  countless  sacrifices  in 
blood  and  treasure.  These  millions  are  now  re 
covering  from  the  shock  of  battle.  They  are 
trying  to  find  their  peace  balance.  It  is  difficult 
work,  for  the  world  is  still  economically  upset, 
and  socially  in  a  state  of  turmoil.  Since  that 
memorable  day  in  November  a  year  ago,  when 
Prussian  autocracy  surrendered,  giving  up  its 
pretentious  for  world  dominion,  literally  thousands 
of  remedies  have  been  offered  for  the  war  ills  of 


Introduction  ix 

civilization.  It  seems  to  the  writer  that  not  a 
single  one  of  these  suggested  remedies  can  equal 
the  simple  and  homely  formula  spoken  before  an 
audience  in  Passaic,  New  Jersey,  on  the  evening  of 
January  11,  1920.  The  speaker  wore  the  khaki 
uniform  of  an  American  army  officer.  His  bron 
zed,  kindly  face  was  deeply  lined  with  furrows  and 
his  voice  rang  with  emotion  as  he  said: 

"The  watchword  of  this  country  to-day  should 
be  *  Steady'  and  the  slogan  should  be  'Law  and 
Order.'  Hold  on  to  the  things  that  made  us  what 
we  are.  Stand  for  government  under  the  Con 
stitution.  Stand  for  the  homely,  plain  things 
which  really  lie  at  the  foundation  of  our  govern 
ment.  We  want  to  stand  with  our  feet  squarely 
on  the  earth,  our  eye  on  God,  our  ideals  high  but 
steady." 

The  speaker  was  Major-General  Leonard  Wood, 
and  it  seems  to  me  that  in  the  above  words  he 
came  nearer  to  giving  voice  to  the  thoughts  that 
lie  closer  to  the  heart  of  the  American  nation 
to-day  than  the  whole  host  of  political  prophets 
who  have  addressed  us  during  the  past  year. 

I  believe  there  is  no  man  in  this  great  land  who 
can  point  to  a  career  richer  in  service  to  his  fellow- 
men  than  this  doctor-soldier-administrator.  He 
has  devoted  his  whole  life  to  his  country  in  a  pro 
fession  that  is  not  popular,  except  in  time  of  war. 


x  Introduction 

And  yet  his  great  deeds,  bestowing  happiness  on 
alien  peoples  and  undying  honour  on  his  own 
country,  have  been  performed  in  the  capacity  of 
a  civil  administrator,  a  business  executive.  There 
is  no  parallel  to  Wood's  Cuban  labours.  Wood's 
record  in  Cuba  forms  one  of  the  shining  chapters 
in  our  national  chronicles,  one  of  the  fair  pages 
in  the  history  of  civilization.  When  in  1903 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  conferred  on 
General  Wood  the  honorary  degree  of  LL.D., 
Dr.  Horace  Howard  Furness  said:  "Can  mortal 
lips  pray  for  a  fairer  guerdon  in  this  life  than 
to  be  able  to  'scatter  plenty  o'er  a  smiling  land' 
and  on  the  cheek  where  malaria  spreads  disease 
bid  'health  to  plant  the  rose'?  Or  by  wise 
statesmanship  to  lure  again  to  their  peaceful  paths 
traffic  and  commerce,  affrighted  by  turbulence  of 
war?  Or  to  hear  the  lisping  hum  of  schools 
beneath  the  Northern  pine  reechoed  beneath  the 
waving  Southern  palm?" 

To  what  extent  this  saviour  of  Cuba  became  the 
rescuer  of  the  United  States  during  the  late  war 
we  of  the  present  generation  may  never  be  able  to 
determine.  What  we  do  know  is  that  he  stirred 
the  soul  of  America  by  his  courage  and  patriotism 
when  other  leaders  of  our  country  maintained  and 
enjoined  on  us  a  craven  silence.  How  many 
parents  of  this  land  owe  the  lives  of  their  sons  to 


Introduction  xi 

the  wise  preparedness  labour  of  General  Wood? 
We  can  only  speculate  on  the  answer,  and  recall 
the  remark  of  General  "Lighthorse  Harry"  Lee: 
"Convinced  as  I  am  that  the  government  is  the 
murderer  of  its  citizens  which  sends  them  to  the 
field  uninformed  and  untaught — I  cannot  withhold 
my  denunciations  of  its  wickedness  and  folly." 

"I  am  not  astonished  at  your  ability  to  recruit 
and  train  4,000,000  troops  in  nineteen  months," 
said  a  French  officer  detailed  to  one  of  our  Na 
tional  Army  camps,  "but  your  ability  to  train  the 
officers  for  these  troops  is  miraculous." 

Wood  was  the  precursor  of  that  miracle.  His 
Plattsburgh  camps  became  the  model  of  our 
officers'  training  camps,  and  the  model  was  in 
perfect  working  order  a  year  before  we  entered  the 
war.  Leonard  Wood  has  achieved  a  high  distinc 
tion  as  an  army  officer,  and  yet  a  more  unmilita- 
aristic,  more  democratic  American  you  cannot 
find  among  the  hundred  million  inhabitants  of  this 
country. 

The  writer  of  this  brief  outline  of  the  life  and 
works  of  Leonard  Wood  is  by  profession  a  news 
paper  man  who  has  had  wide  experience  meeting 
the  prominent  men  of  the  United  States,  and  has 
an  unusual  ability  in  analyzing  and  estimating 
character.  He  has  sought  my  advice  and  assist- 


xii  Introduction 

ance  in  the  compilation  of  this  book;  and  being 
acquainted  with  both  the  subject  and  the  author, 
I  have  read  the  manuscript  with  much  interest 
and  believe  the  book  will  be  of  great  value  to  any 
reader.  Of  the  career  of  Leonard  Wood,  the  late 
Theodore  Roosevelt  said,  when  writing  in  The 
Outlook  in  1910,  at  the  time  that  Wood  was  pro 
moted  to  the  post  of  Chief  of  the  General  Staff  of 
the  U.  S.  Army:  "His  career  has  been  astonishing, 
and  it  has  been  due  purely  to  his  own  striking 
qualifications  and  striking  achievements." 

FREDERICK  MOORE. 
New  York,  February  27,  1920. 


THE    LIFE   OF 
LEONARD    WOOD 


THE    LIFE    OF 

LEONARD   WOOD 

i 

EARLY  BOYHOOD  AND  SCHOOL  DAYS 

A  LITTLE  more  than  twenty  years  ago — the 
exact  date  was  December  12,  1899 — Leonard 
Wood,  a  Major-General  of  volunteers,  received 
the  oddest,  and  at  least  in  some  respects  the  most 
interesting,  order  that  any  government  has  ever 
issued  to  an  army  officer. 

He  was  appointed  Military  Governor  of  an 
island  which  had  for  four  hundred  years  been  a 
colonial  dependency  of  one  of  the  most  reactionary 
monarchies  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  and  ordered  to 
train  its  million  and  a  half  inhabitants  for  demo 
cratic  self-government,  and  do  the  job  as  quickly 
as  he  could  and  then  come  home.  The  appoint 
ment  made  him  absolute  ruler  over  the  island  and 
its  inhabitants.  He  became,  in  fact,  if  not  in 
name,  a  monarch.  His  job  was  to  build  and  re- 

s 


4  •  /:;.•;    ;2rfe  Life. of  Leonard  Wood 

build  and  repair  all  the  civil  institutions  of  the 
island,  such  as  the  courts,  the  customs  and  postal 
departments,  the  school  system,  the  electoral 
system,  and  to  supervise  and  aid  the  writing  of  a 
constitution.  Wood  finished  the  job  in  two  years 
and  a  half  and  came  home. 

Two  years  before  receiving  this  appointment 
to  rehabilitate  Cuba  and  set  her  on  her  own  in 
dependent  feet,  Wood  was  an  obscure  army  sur 
geon  with  the  rank  of  a  captain.  Long  before  he 
had  finished  with  Cuba  he  was  an  international 
figure.  Wlien  he  came  home,  he  was  assigned  to  a 
somewhat  minor  post  in  the  Philippines.  After 
that  he  became  Chief -of -Staff  in  Washington. 
Then  he  was  shifted  from  one  post  to  another 
such  as  any  General  might  fill.  To-day  he  is 
commander  of  the  Central  Department  with  head 
quarters  in  the  half -empty  War  Department  build 
ing  in  Chicago,  a  few  blocks  north  of  the  Chicago 
River;  and  he  is  more  talked  about  throughout 
this  country  than  when  he  was  sole  master  of 
the  island  of  Cuba. 

If  he  had  followed  the  ordinary  rules,  his  public 
demise  should  have  taken  place  about  the  time  he 
embarked  for  the  Philippines  to  take  a  subordinate 
post  in  the  islands.  However,  he  did  the  Philippine 
job  so  well  that  he  was  made  Chief -of -Staff  of 
the  United  States  Army.  But  thereafter  a  decent 


Early  Boyhood  and  School  Days         5 

permanent  burial  in  one  of  our  quiet  army  bureaus 
might  have  been  expected  under  a  Democratic 
regime,  especially  for  a  man  who  had  been  so 
closely  identified  with  the  preceding  Republican 
administration.  Instead  of  that  Wood  is  to-day 
the  leading  candidate  for  the  Republican  party's 
nomination  for  President  of  the  United  States. 

He  was  not  to  be  permitted  to  take  an  active  part 
overseas  in  the  late  war.  Nevertheless,  like  all 
our  general  officers  in  charge  of  troop  training 
camps  at  home,  he  had  to  be  sent  to  Europe  for  an 
inspection  of  the  battlefields.  A  French  artillery 
piece  exploded,  killing  several  officers  in  his  party 
and  severely  wounding  General  Wood.  At  the 
close  of  the  war,  Wood  was  one  of  the  very  few 
American  generals  entitled  to  wear  a  wound 
stripe. 

General  Wood  has  never  kept  quiet  in  any  job 
he  has  ever  held  in  the  United  States  Army  during 
his  thirty-five  years  of  active  service.  When  there 
was  work  to  do,  he  has  done  it,  from  chasing  bad 
Indians  all  over  our  great  Southwest  back  in  the 
'eighties  and  over  a  good  slice  of  Mexico's  north 
west,  to  teaching  Cuba  how  to  rule  herself.  When 
he  had  nothing  to  do  but  run  one  of  our  army 
departments,  which  practically  run  themselves, 
and  draw  his  army  salary,  he  would  pick  up  odd 
jobs  such  as  preaching  preparedness  for  the  late 


6  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

war,  and  organizing  camps  for  the  training  of 
officers.  He  has  been  a  breeder  of  action  just  like 
his  closest  friend,  the  late  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
By  keeping  in  such  exercise,  he  has  persistently 
declined  to  outlive  the  great  reputation  he  made 
in  Cuba.  Otherwise  various  Republican  State 
organizations  would  not  be  endorsing  him  for 
presidential  candidate  at  the  present  time. 

Wood  is  fifty-nine  years  old,  strong,  and  in 
splendid  physical  condition.  He  stands  about 
five  feet  ten  or  eleven  inches,  and  weighs  close  to 
two  hundred  pounds t  He  is  a  powerfully  built  man 
with  the  bulging  muscles  of  one  who  has  done 
manual  work.  If  he  were  in  civilian  clothes,  you 
might  take  him  for  a  sea  captain  for  he  walks  with 
an  exaggerated  rolling  gait  rather  than  a  limp,  the 
result  of  an  accident  which  impaired  his  left  leg 
some  years  ago.  His  voice  is  deep,  with  splendid 
carrying  qualities,  and  yet  it  is  pleasant,  even 
gentle.  There  is  utterly  nothing  of  military  fuss  or 
pomp  about  this  man  who  has  been  in  uniform 
most  of  his  life.  But  he  carries  a  distinct  air  of 
authority,  the  natural  attribute  of  a  veteran  army 
officer.  In  speech  he  is  always  direct  and  forceful, 
sometimes  picturesque.  His  eyes  are  blue  arid  his 
hair  is  of  a  neutral  light  colour  and  looks  as  if  the 
sun,  rather  than  age,  had  faded  it.  His  face  is  lined 
with  deep  furrows,  the  brand  that  the  sun  and  wind 


Early  Boyhood  and  School  Days          7 

of  the  Southwest,  where  he  spent  ten  years  of  his 
early  army  life,  stamp  on  the  countenances  of  the 
farmers  and  rangers  of  that  region. 

He  is  a  New  Englander  by  birth,  and  he  can 
trace  his  genealogy  through  a  line  of  farmers, 
merchants,  soldiers,  sailors,  and  doctors,  back  to 
the  earliest  New  England  Colonial  days.  On  his 
paternal  side  he  is  descended  from  Peregrine 
White,  the  first  white  child  born  in  Plymouth 
colony,  whose  parents  came  over  on  the  May 
flower.  The  New  England  stock  from  which  Gen 
eral  Wood  is  descended  has  mixed  democracy  in 
politics  with  its  religion  for  four  hundred  years, 
and  it  has  not  been  accustomed  to  compromise 
with  its  convictions  in  either  politics  or  religion. 

Recently  a  New  England  admirer  of  General 
Wood  sent  him  his  genealogical  table,  tracing  his 
ancestry  on  both  his  paternal  and  maternal  sides 
back  to  the  first  appearance  of  his  various  fore 
bears  on  American  soil.  The  document  is  in 
teresting  in  the  fact  that  nearly  all  the  branches 
of  his  family  seem  to  have  settled  in  this  country 
before  the  Revolution;  with  rare  exceptions  the 
names  indicate  Anglo-Saxon  origin.  A  few  names 
which  might  be  Irish  or  Welsh  appear  in  the  table, 
and  one  French  name,  Jacques,  probably  French- 
Canadian.  But  the  most  prevalent  names  are 
those  of  Wood,  Hagar,  Bragg,  Boynton,  Nixon, 


8  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Reed,  Thompson,  White,  Fiske,  Flagg,  Pierce, 
Cutler,  and  Berry.  One  of  his  ancestors  on  his 
mother's  side,  Brigadier-General  John  Nixon,  had 
a  distinguished  record  in  the  War  of  the  Revolu 
tion,  commanding  a  company  at  Lexington,  a 
regiment  at  Bunker  Hill,  and  a  brigade  at  Saratoga. 

Names  gather  their  traditions  and  character 
and  they  need  not  acquire  fame  or  distinction 
before  so  doing.  These  old  New  England  names 
borne  by  General  Wood's  grandsires  suggest 
such  decent  human  careers  as  built  the  founda 
tion  of  our  Republic — sailors,  farmers,  village 
storekeepers,  and  merchants — the  stock  from  which 
our  country  drew  its  strength  in  time  of  trouble, 
the  stock  which  supplied  the  pioneers  of  the  West. 

Leonard  Wood  was  born  in  Winchester,  New 
Hampshire,  on  October  9,  1860,  the  son  of  Dr. 
Charles  Jewett  Wood  and  Caroline  Hager  Wood. 
When  Leonard  was  a  few  months  old  the  family 
moved  to  Massachusetts,  where  the  father  re 
sponded  to  Lincoln's  first  call  for  volunteers.  He 
served  in  the  Forty-second  Massachusetts  regi 
ment  for  the  greater  part  of  the  Civil  War,  and  was 
invalided  home  shortly  before  peace  was  restored. 
When  the  son  was  eight  years  old,  Dr.  Wood 
settled  in  Pocasset  on  Cape  Cod,  and  in  this  barren 
but  picturesque  region  Leonard  Wood  grew  to 
early  manhood.  There  seems  to  have  been  noth- 


Early  Boyhood  and  School  Days          9 

ing  especially  remarkable  about  his  boyhood  or 
early  youth. 

He  attended  the  village  school  in  Pocasset,  and 
a  boyhood  friend  described  him  as  a  stocky,  well- 
built  lad  with  blue  eyes  and  hair  of  the  colour  of 
caulking-tow.  He  was  shy,  silent,  and  sensitive. 
He  showed  in  school  a  fondness  for  the  languages 
and  history,  but  he  disliked  mathematics.  He 
read  mostly  books  on  travel,  history,  and  adven 
ture  with  an  occasional  novel. 

Like  most  Cape  Cod  boys,  he  was  an  excellent 
sailor  and  swimmer.  He  was  an  out-of-door  boy 
as  he  has  always  been  an  out-of-door  man.  In 
cidentally,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  it  is  the  out- 
of-door  boy  and  man  who  is  physically  best  fitted 
to  perform  the  most  gruelling  indoor  work.  The 
days  young  Wood  spent  exploring  the  hills  of  Cape 
Cod  and  sailing  on  Cape  Cod  Bay  and  Buzzards 
Bay  were  days  well  spent  for  himself  and  his  coun 
try.  These  days  built  up  a  body  which  later 
fought  malaria,  yellow  fever,  and  typhoid  in  the 
pest  holes  of  Cuba,  and  won  out. 

There  never  was  a  surplus  of  wealth  in  the  Wood 
family,  and  Leonard  Wood  had  to  plan  early  in 
life  to  take  care  of  himself.  He  attended  Middle- 
boro  Academy,  where  he  made  more  of  a  reputa 
tion  as  an  athlete  than  student,  and  yet  he  kept 
un  with  his  class,  never  neglecting  his  studies; 


10  Tlie  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

but  when  it  came  to  cross-country  running,  foot 
ball,  and  other  sports,  he  entered  into  his  work  with 
a  zest  which  set  him  apart  from  his  fellow  students. 
When  he  finished  at  Middleboro,  he  was  famous  as 
a  cross-country  runner. 

He  was  now  face  to  face  with  the  problem  of 
choosing  a  career.  He  had  a  deep  longing  for  the 
navy,  but  in  those  days  the  chances  for  advance 
ment  in  the  navy  were  poor.  He  got  in 
touch  with  an  Arctic  expedition  and  went  so  far 
as  to  purchase  equipment  for  the  northern  journey. 
Then  came  a  council  of  war  between  father  and 
son.  The  father  did  not  seem  to  think  much  of 
the  Arctics  as  a  field  of  endeavour  for  a  young 
man,  especially  as  there  were  plenty  of  openings 
in  the  United  States  for  any  ambitious  youth.  He 
advised  his  son  to  take  up  his  own  profession,  that 
of  medicine,  with  the  result  that  Leonard  Wood 
entered  the  Harvard  University  Medical  School 
in  1880  and  graduated  in  1884. 

"I  had  a  general  notion  that  I  wanted  to  be  of 
some  service  to  my  country,"  said  General  Wood 
when  asked  about  his  boyhood  ambition.  "I  also 
wanted  to  see  something  of  my  country  besides  the 
East.  When  I  found  that  I  could  not  get  into  the 
navy,  I  determined  to  try  the  army." 

Wood  made  his  own  way  through  college,  partly 
by  the  aid  of  a  scholarship,  but  principally  by 


Early  Boyhood  and  School  Days        11 

tutoring  and  doing  other  odd  jobs.  What  with 
attending  to  his  studies  and  making  his  own  living, 
he  was  too  busy  to  devote  much  attention  to 
athletics,  and  most  of  his  football  playing  was  done 
in  later  years  at  army  posts.  Football  has  always 
been  his  favourite  game,  and  he  played  it  whenever 
he  had  a  chance  until  he  was  nearly  forty  years 
old.  He  would  have  kept  on  with  it  but  for  the 
fact  that  his  duties  took  him  to  Cuba  and  the 
Philippines,  and  football  is  not  a  game  for  the 
tropics. 

After  his  graduation  from  Harvard  he  served 
an  internship  in  the  Boston  City  Hospital,  special 
izing  in  surgery.  One  of  his  old  friends  described 
Wood  as  having  been  a  shy  and  silent  young  man 
about  this  time,  "a  regular  hog  for  work,"  who 
could  always  be  depended  on  to  attend  to  his 
patients  with  the  utmost  care.  He  opened  an 
office  in  the  poorer  section  of  Boston,  but  as  most 
of  his  practice  was  city  charity  work,  it  was  not 
especially  remunerative. 


SOLDIER  AND  SURGEON 

AFTER  a  few  months  of  general  practice  Wood 
went  to  New  York  City  and  took  the  examination 
for  a  surgeon  in  the  United  States  Army  with  fifty- 
nine  other  young  physicians.  He  surprised  him 
self  by  passing  second  on  the  list.  There  was  no 
immediate  vacancy  in  the  army  Medical  Corps. 
However,  there  was  Indian  fighting  cropping  out 
in  the  Southwest,  and  on  June  5,  1885,  Wood 
received  his  appointment  as  assistant  surgeon. 
There  was  some  dispute  about  the  matter  of  his 
rank  and  he  was  asked  if  he  would  enter  the  service 
as  a  contract  surgeon. 

"Yes,  if  I  can  go  \Vest  and  see  active  service." 

He  was  assured  that  he  would  see  all  the  active 
service  that  he  wanted,  and  during  the  next  few 
years  he  realized  that  this  was  no  idle  talk. 

He  was  ordered  to  Fort  Huachuca,  Arizona, 
where  General  Crook  was  in  command  of  the  opera 
tions  against  the  Apaches,  and  assigned  to  Whipple 
Barracks  under  the  command  of  Captain  Henry 

12 


Soldier  and  Surgeon  13 

W.  Lawton,  already  a  noted  Indian  fighter.  Law- 
ton  later  won  great  fame  as  commander  in  Cuba 
and  the  Philippines.  Leonard  Wood  reached 
Whipple  Barracks  late  in  the  afternoon  of  a  broil 
ing  Fourth  of  July.  There  was  an  old-fashioned 
Independence  Day  celebration  in  full  swing  at 
the  post.  Soldiers,  cowpunchers,  frontiersmen, 
and  half-breed  Indians  were  observing  the  day 
in  true  Western  style  with  liquor  and  gunpowder. 
The  young  New  Englander  received  a  characteris 
tic  greeting  from  Captain  Lawton,  who  looked  him 
over  somewhat  critically,  and  said: 

"What  in  hell  are  you  doing  out  here?" 
"I  want  to  get  into  the  line  as  soon  as  possible." 
This  was  the  sort  of  an  answer  that  appealed 
to  Lawton,  who  at  once  changed  his  attitude  and 
said: 

"Come  along  and  I'll  see  what  I  can  do  to  help 
you." 

This  help  consisted  in  giving  the  new  army  doc 
tor  an  immediate  chance  to  see  early  action.  There 
was  a  detachment  about  to  be  sent  out  on  an  In 
dian  chase,  and  Wood  was  given  orders  to  ac 
company  the  troops.  The  column  started  off 
early  the  next  morning,  Wood  being  presented 
with  an  unassigned  horse.  "  A  very  special  horse," 
the  sergeant  remarked  as  he  handed  the  reins  to 
the  tenderfoot. 


14  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

It  was  indeed  something  of  "a  special  horse"  as 
its  rider  soon  discovered.  It  was  half -broke  and 
ill-tempered  to  boot.  Even  the  veteran  troopers 
had  dodged  it  because  of  its  vicious  gait.  It 
proved,  in  fact,  to  be  nothing  less  than  an  "out 
law"  and  the  young  Easterner  was  not  an  ex 
perienced  horseman. 

There  was  not  a  man  in  the  outfit  that  did  not 
expect  Wood  to  be  thrown;  at  least  the  troopers 
were  certain  he  would  fall  back  after  an  hour  or 
so.  But  Leonard  Wood  had  already  acquired  the 
habit  which  has  stuck  to  him  throughout  his  life, 
that  of  finishing  any  job  he  undertook  to  do.  He 
rode  his  "outlaw"  thirty-five  miles  the  first  day, 
and  he  was  not  thrown.  During  the  next  five 
days  he  averaged  eighteen  hours  a  day  in  the 
saddle  or  marching,  and  this  over  the  roughest 
country  in  Arizona  and  in  the  blistering  heat  of 
midsummer.  It  was  a  tough  test,  even  for 
the  veterans.  Wood  was  scorched  and  blistered, 
but  he  never  thought  of  giving  up,  and  his  temper 
was  not  even  spoiled.  He  smiled  and  kept  up 
with  the  old  troopers.  He  never  got  the  oppor 
tunity  to  rest  and  mend,  and  in  the  language  of 
the  army  he  "healed  in  the  saddle."  Within  a 
few  weeks  he  was  able  to  out-ride  and  out-march 
many  of  Captain  Lawton's  veterans. 

It  had  been  Leonard  Wood's  good  fortune  to 


Soldier  and  Surgeon  15 

join  Captain  Lawton  just  at  the  beginning  of  what 
developed  into  the  last  long  campaign  of  the  war 
with  the  Apaches  who  were  under  the  able  leader 
ship  of  the  notorious  Geronimo.  There  was  not 
much  actual  fighting.  Geronimo  was  by  far  too 
shrewd  a  commander  to  be  drawn  into  a  pitched 
battle.  He  and  his  "human  tigers"  waged  war 
by  assassination.  They  would  raid  white  settle 
ments  and  Indian  reservations  alike,  kill  white 
and  red  alike,  round  up  the  live  stock,  and  flee 
to  the  mountains.  Their  depredations  extended 
into  Mexico,  and  the  warfare  into  which  Wood  was 
plunged  took  him  over  wild,  rough  country  on 
both  sides  of  the  line.  Three  months  after  he 
joined  Lawton's  command  he  was  leading  small 
picked  forces  whose  officers  had  broken  under 
the  strain.  He  was  rapidly  establishing  a  reputa 
tion  among  the  old  troopers  for  his  remarkable 
physical  strength  and  endurance,  qualities  which 
enabled  him  not  only  to  make  good  as  an  Indian 
fighter,  but  made  it  possible  for  him  later  in  life  to 
stand  up  under  the  terribly  unhealthful  conditions 
in  Cuba  and  the  Philippines. 

The  campaign  which  resulted  in  Geronimo's 
capture  lasted  for  more  than  fourteen  months. 
During  most  of  this  time  the  young  army  doctor 
was  on  the  trail. 

The  pursuit  led  over  the  roughest  and  wildest 


16  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

sections  of  our  Southwest,  and  into  the  Mexican 
states  of  Sonora  and  Chihuahua.  The  course 
taken  by  the  Indians  lay  to  the  west  of  that  fol 
lowed  by  General  Pershing  when  he  chased  Pancho 
Villa  across  the  border.  General  Nelson  A.  Miles 
had  succeeded  General  Crook,  and  being  one  of 
the  greatest  Indian  fighters  the  country  ever 
produced,  he  had  definite  ideas  on  conducting  a 
campaign  against  the  red  men.  His  formula  was 
to  follow  the  Indians  night  and  day  wherever  they 
went,  no  matter  how  rough  the  country,  and  never 
to  give  them  any  rest  until  they  were  killed  or 
captured. 

There  could  be  but  one  outcome  to  the  unequal 
struggle.  The  tragic  doom  of  the  red  man  was 
sealed  the  moment  he  determined  to  pit  his  brute 
power  against  the  brain  power  of  the  white  man. 
However,  in  the  campaign  against  Geronimo's 
Apaches,  the  odds  were  often  in  favour  of  the 
Indians;  and  here  the  story  of  all  our  Indian  wars, 
as  well  as  the  story  of  most  wars  between  civilized 
men  and  savages,  was  repeated.  The  eventual 
outcome  was  never  in  doubt,  though  the  outcome 
of  each  individual  engagement  or  skirmish  was 
always  doubtful.  Our  soldiers  had  to  fight  the 
Apaches  in  their  own  natural  environment,  under 
conditions  most  favourable  to  them.  The  Apaches 
were  masters  of  the  wilderness.  They  could  live 


Soldier  and  Surgeon  17 

off  the  land  wherever  they  went,  subsist  on  roots, 
cactus,  mice,  rabbits,  woodchucks,  and  other 
rodents  when  they  couldn't  steal  cattle.  They 
knew  all  the  hiding  places  in  the  unsettled  regions 
of  the  great  Southwest.  They  could  travel  at 
remarkable  speed  on  horseback  or  on  foot,  being 
unimpeded  by  baggage  or  commissary  stores. 
They  would  steal  horses,  ride  them  to  death,  then 
eat  them. 

To  deal  with  these  savages  on  anything  ap 
proaching  equal  terms,  the  white  soldiers  had  to 
become  masters  of  the  wilderness.  They,  too,  had 
to  toughen  their  bodies  until  they  were  equal  in 
endurance  to  the  red  men.  They  had  to  accustom 
themselves  to  long  forays,  and  dispense  with  their 
pack-trains  carrying  food  supplies.  They  might 
in  time  equal  the  Indians  in  their  knowledge  of 
the  country.  They  could  never  hope  to  develop 
the  red  man's  keen  natural  sense  of  sight  and  smell 
and  hearing,  or  his  animal-like  ability  to  divine  the 
proximity  of  a  foe. 

When  Leonard  Wood  abandoned  his  civil  career 
and  joined  the  army,  our  great  Western  country 
was  in  that  stage  of  early  development  which  of 
fered  the  most  alluring  prospects  for  young  men 
of  his  professional  training  and  natural  ability. 
Horace  Greeley's  famous  slogan,  "Go  West,  young 
man,  and  grow  up  with  the  country,"  was  still  as 


18  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

fresh  as  the  day  it  was  uttered.  It  was  still  shap 
ing  the  careers  of  thousands  of  enterprising  young 
Easterners.  Each  west-bound  train,  one  might 
say,  carried  its  Greeley  cargo  of  young  men  and 
high  hopes.  Never  was  there  a  movement  of 
immigration  destined  for  greater  success  than  that 
which  moved  across  the  Mississippi  in  the  'seventies 
and  'eighties.  Leonard  Wood  could  have  satisfied 
his  desire  to  see  the  West  by  moving  into  one  of  the 
booming  Western  cities  and  hanging  out  his  shingle. 
With  the  prestige  which  a  diploma  from  one  of 
the  country's  foremost  educational  institutions 
gave  him,  his  professional  success  and  material 
prosperity  were  virtually  assured. 

One  could  readily  understand  how  a  reckless 
youngster,  spoiling  for  the  want  of  action,  whose 
mind  was  filled  with  the  adventures  of  the  buffalo 
hunt,  the  mining  field,  and  the  Indian  chase,  would 
go  into  the  army  or  seek  the  frontiers  to  satisfy  his 
desires.  But  Wood  was  not  of  that  type.  He  was 
a  thoughtful,  quite  young  man  on  whom  the  im 
press  of  our  Eastern  culture  had  indelibly  left  its 
mark.  It  was  unusual  in  the  extreme  not  only  to 
find  a  man  of  his  stamp  along  the  frontier,  but  to 
find  him  holding  his  own  in  the  physical  tests  which 
the  life  of  the  frontier  demanded.  And  Leonard 
Wood  had  entered  on  this  life  with  a  serious  pur 
pose,  that  of  serving  his  country  while  satisfying 


Soldier  and  Surgeon  19 

his  own  youthful  craving  for  adventure  and  the 
wide,  open  spaces. 

Geronimo  and  his  band  would  no  doubt  have 
escaped  had  they  been  content  to  remain  in  the 
fastnesses  of  Sonora  and  Chihuahua  in  the  fall  of 
1885.  But  they  were  on  the  war  path.  In  the 
spring  of  1886  they  returned  to  the  north,  in 
vading  the  United  States  and  committing  in 
numerable  atrocities.  Now  began  the  great  chase 
which  was  to  take  Captain  Lawton  and  his  picked 
force  of  troopers  and  Indian  scouts  more  than  two 
thousand  miles.  It  was  in  this  brief  but  terrible 
campaign  that  Wood  won  his  laurels  as  an  Indian 
fighter.  He  had  by  this  time  been  commissioned 
first  lieutenant.  Early  in  the  pursuit  he  covered 
a  distance  of  one  hundred  and  thirty -six  miles  in 
thirty-six  hours  on  foot  and  on  horseback.  On 
another  occasion,  after  a  day's  march  of  twenty- 
five  miles  with  his  troopers  and  Indian  scouts, 
he  rode  seventy-four  miles  during  the  night, 
carrying  dispatches,  and  on  the  following  day 
he  marched  thirty  miles.  A  good  share  of  the 
time  the  chase  led  over  a  desert  country,  and  it 
was  not  uncommon  for  the  pursuers  to  be  without 
water  for  from  eighteen  to  twenty -four  hours. 
The  only  consolation  that  the  white  men  had  was 
that  the  Apaches  were  suffering  no  less.  They 
knew  from  unmistakable  signs  that  the  end  was 


20  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

in  sight.  The  Apaches  had  ceased  to  rob  and  mur 
der,  a  sure  indication  that  they  were  contemplating 
surrender. 

The  troopers  were  in  fact  wearing  out  the  Inj 
dians.  It  was  the  Fourth  Cavalry,  Lawton's  com 
mand,  that  did  most  of  the  chasing  and  fighting. 
Members  of  this  troop  said  that  before  Geronimo 
was  captured,  Wood  was  known  as  one  of  the  few 
white  men  of  the  Southwest  who  could  ride,  run, 
or  walk  down  an  Apache.  Wood  and  his  men 
traversed  on  foot  and  on  horseback  the  mountains 
and  deserts  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  where 
no  white  man  had  ever  been  before.  They  would 
flush  the  Apaches,  scatter  them,  drive  them  away 
from  their  food  stores  and  stolen  cattle,  thus 
following  the  Miles  formula  of  never  giving  the 
red  men  rest. 

Finally  came  the  report  that  Geronimo  wished 
to  open  communications.  Lieutenant  Gate  wood 
was  sent  by  Captain  Lawton  accompanied  by  two 
friendly  Apaches  into  the  hostile  camps  to  demand 
capitulation.  This  Geronimo  refused  to  do  saying 
that  he  would  only  talk  with  "the  officer  who  had 
followed  them  all  summer,"  namely,  Lawton. 
Shortly  afterward  satisfactory  arrangements  were 
made  for  a  formal  surrender  of  Geronimo  and  his 
hostile  tribe  to  General  Miles,  Lawton  acting  as  an 
intermediary. 


©  Paul  Thompson 

At  a  Flower  Show  in  New  York 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  Leonard  Wood,  and  Arthur  Woods,  formerly 
Police' Commissioner  of  New  York  City 


Soldier  and  Surgeon  21 

The  preliminary  negotiations  took  place  near 
Fronteraz,  a  little  hamlet  south  of  the  border  in  the 
State  of  Sonora.  It  was  agreed  that  the  troops 
and  the  Indians  should  move  northward  into  the 
United  States,  and  as  a  mark  of  good  faith,  Cap 
tain  Lawton,  Lieutenant  Wood,  and  two  other 
officers  were  to  travel  with  them.  The  two 
columns  became  separated  through  a  mistake  in 
orders  and  contact  was  lost  between  the  American 
troops  and  the  Indians.  Captain  Lawton  had 
to  leave  the  Apaches  in  search  of  his  troops.  Thus 
Wood  and  his  two  brother  officers  were  practically 
left  as  hostages  with  the  Indians. 

Their  position  at  first  seemed  precarious,  to  say 
the  least.  Only  a  few  weeks  before  the  reds 
had  been  murdering  every  white  person  who  came 
within  then*  reach.  Writing  of  this  incident, 
General  Wood  says: 

Instead  of  taking  advantage  of  our  position,  they 
assured  us  that  while  we  were  in  their  camp  it  was  our 
camp,  and  that  as  we  had  never  lied  to  them  they  were 
going  to  keep  faith  with  us.  They  gave  us  the  best 
they  had  to  eat  and  treated  us  as  well  as  we  could  wish 
in  every  way.  Just  before  giving  us  these  assurances, 
Geronimo  came  to  me  and  asked  to  see  my  rifle.  It 
was  a  Hotchkiss  and  he  had  never  seen  its  mechanism. 
When  he  asked  me  for  the  gun  and  some  ammunition, 
I  must  confess  I  felt  a  little  nervous,  for  I  thought  it 
might  be  a  device  to  get  hold  of  one  of  our  weapons. 


22  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

I  made  no  objection,  however,  but  let  him  have  it, 
showed  him  how  to  use  it,  and  he  fired  at  a  mark,  just 
missing  one  of  his  own  men,  which  he  regarded  as  a 
great  joke,  rolling  on  the  ground,  laughing  heartily  and 
saying,  "good  gun." 

Late  the  next  afternoon  we  came  up  with  our  com 
mand,  and  we  then  proceeded  toward  the  boundary 
line.  The  Indians  were  very  watchful,  and  when  we 
came  near  any  of  our  troops  we  found  the  Indians  were 
always  aware  of  their  presence  before  we  knew  of  it 
ourselves. 

After  a  northward  march  of  eleven  days  the 
two  columns  came  to  a  halt  and  a  formal  sur 
render  took  place  in  Skelton  Canon.  Geronimo 
spoke  no  English  and  the  conversation  between 
him  and  General  Miles  was  carried  on  through  an 
interpreter. 

"General  Miles  wishes  to  assure  you  that  he  is 
your  friend,"  said  the  interpreter,  addressing 
Geronimo. 

"I've  never  seen  him,  but  I  have  been  in  need 
of  friends,"  replied  Geronimo,  who  was  gifted  with 
a  sense  of  humour.  "If  he  is  my  friend,  why  has 
he  not  been  with  me?" 

Everybody  laughed  at  the  Apache  leader's  joke, 
and  the  negotiations  proceeded  through  the 
mediumship  of  the  interpreter  and  the  eloquent 
sign  language  of  which  General  Miles  was  a  mas 
ter.  Contrary  to  all  expectations,  the  death 


Soldier  and  Surgeon  23 

penalty  was  not  imposed  on  Geronimo  or  Natchez 
or  any  of  the  other  Apache  leaders.  In  his  own 
dictated  story,  published  many  years  later,  and 
dedicated  to  Theodore  Roosevelt,  then  President 
of  the  United  States,  Geronimo  tells  of  the  peace 
negotiations  and  mentions  that  Dr.  Wood  was  one 
of  the  men  who  came  into  his  camp  to  deal  with 
him. 

Although  at  this  time  he  was  only  a  junior  officer 
with  very  limited  army  experience,  Leonard  Wood 
immediately  drew  the  attention  of  General  Miles, 
who  says  in  his  published  memoirs: 

I  also  found  at  Fort  Huachuca  another  splendid  type 
of  American  manhood,  Captain  Leonard  Wood,  As 
sistant  Surgeon,  United  States  Army.  He  was  a  young 
officer,  age  twenty-four,  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  a 
graduate  of  Harvard,  a  fair-haired,  blue-eyed  young 
man  of  great  intelligence,  sterling,  manly  qualities  and 
resolute  spirit.  He  was  also  perhaps  as  fine  a  specimen 
of  physical  strength  and  endurance  as  could  easily  be 
found. 

.  .  .  His  services  and  observations  and  example  were 
most  commendable  and  valuable,  and  added  much 
to  the  physical  success  of  the  enterprise. 

At  the  time  he  wrote,  Wood  had  won  a  captain's 
commission,  but  he  was  only  a  first  lieutenant 
when  General  Miles  met  him  at  Fort  Huachuca. 


24  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Captain  Lawton,  in  his  official  report  of  the  cam 
paign,  says: 

No  officer  of  infantry  having  been  sent  with  the  de 
tachment.  .  .  .  Assistant  Surgeon  Wood  was,  at 
his  own  request,  given  command  of  the  infantry.  The 
work  during  June  having  been  done  by  the  cavalry,  they 
were  too  much  exhausted  to  be  used  again  without  rest, 
and  they  were  left  in  camp  at  Oposura  to  recuperate. 

During  the  short  campaign,  the  suffering  was  in 
tense.  The  country  was  indescribably  rough,  and  the 
weather  swelteringly  hot,  with  heavy  rains  for  day  or 
night.  The  endurance  of  the  men  was  tried  to  the 
utmost  limit.  Disabilities  resulting  from  excessive 
fatigue  reduced  the  infantry  to  fourteen  men,  and  as 
they  were  worn  out  and  without  shoes  when  the  new 
supplies  reached  me  July  29th,  they  were  returned  to 
the  supply  camp  for  rest.  .  .  .  Heavy  rains  having 
set  in,  the  trail  of  the  hostiles,  who  were  all  on  foot,  was 
entirely  obliterated. 

I  desire  particularly  to  invite  the  attention  of  the 
Department  Commander  to  Assistant  Surgeon  Leonard 
Wood,  the  only  officer  who  has  been  with  me  through 
the  whole  campaign.  His  courage,  energy,  and  loyal 
support  during  the  whole  time;  his  encouraging  ex 
ample  to  the  command  when  work  was  the  hardest  and 
prospects  darkest;  his  thorough  confidence  and  belief 
in  the  final  success  of  the  expedition,  and  his  untiring 
efforts  to  make  it  so,  have  placed  me  under  obligations 
so  great  that  I  cannot  even  express  them. 

There  have  been  few  men  in  the  United  States 
Army  whose  standards  of  soldierly  conduct  were 


Soldier  and  Surgeon  25 

higher  than  those  of  General  Lawton,  few  officers 
whose  commendations  were  more  highly  prized. 
This  rough  old  warrior,  like  Wood,  was  a  product 
of  Harvard.  Between  the  two  there  sprang  up  an 
intimate  friendship  which  lasted  until  the  death  of 
General  Lawton  in  the  Philippines.  It  was  of 
inestimable  value  to  Wood  to  be  associated  with 
such  a  man  in  his  early  career.  Although  they 
differed  greatly  in  temperament,  both  were  born 
leaders,  both  soldiers  by  nature.  Wood  learned 
much  of  military  art  from  him  and  of  the  still  more 
complex  and  difficult  art  of  handling  men  of  all 
types  under  trying  conditions. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  be  impressed  by  the  praise 
bestowed  on  the  young  medical  officer,  who  had 
come  into  the  army  totally  without  military  train 
ing,  and  who,  within  a  few  weeks,  had  displayed 
such  striking  qualities  of  leadership,  and  had  so 
quickly  mastered  the  essentials  of  military  science, 
that  he  was  entrusted  with  command  of  troops  in  a 
difficult  campaign.  He  had  come  from  the  most 
densely  populated  and  the  most  cultivated  section 
of  the  country  into  a  howling  wilderness,  there  to 
join  in  a  life-and-death  struggle  waged  between 
American  troopers,  who  were  by  no  means  a  set  of 
Sunday-school  boys,  and  a  band  of  Apaches, 
whose  name  has  been  perpetuated  in  our  and  other 
languages  as  an  epithet  descriptive  of  savage 


26  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

brutality.  He  won  distinction  in  the  conflict 
which  tested  not  only  personal  bravery,  but  the 
highest  qualities  of  manhood. 

In  March,  1898,  nearly  twelve  years  after  the 
Geronimo  campaign,  Leonard  Wood  was  awarded 
the  Congressional  Medal  of  Honour,  then,  as  now, 
the  highest  military  decoration  within  the  gift  of 
the  nation.  It  was  presented  "for  distinguished 
conduct  in  the  campaign  against  the  Apache  In 
dians  in  1886  while  serving  as  medical  and  line 
officer  of  Captain  Lawton's  expedition." 


Ill 

WITH  CLEVELAND  AND  McKiNLEY 

FOLLOWING  the  surrender  of  Geronimo  and 
his  band  of  Apaches,  Leonard  Wood  found  time 
to  study  the  intricate  technical  side  of  military 
science  to  which  he  devoted  himself  with  character 
istic  energy.  He  had  already  learned  how  to  get 
the  maximum  amount  of  work  out  of  himself  by 
keeping  his  body  in  top-notch  physical  condition. 
This  work  knowledge  he  applied  to  his  perusal  of 
standard  works  on  military  technique  and  military 
organization  and  to  the  practical  troop  maneuvers 
in  the  field. 

During  the  Indian  campaign  he  had  become 
greatly  interested  in  the  heliograph  system  of 
signalling  which  General  Miles  was  developing. 
To  expand  his  signalling  system,  General  Miles 
ordered  a  survey  of  the  State  of  Arizona;  and  be 
cause  of  the  intelligent  interest  which  Wood  had 
displayed  in  this  work,  Miles  made  him  one  of  his 
chief  assistants.  The  survey  consumed  several 
months,  and  when  it  was  accomplished  Wood 

27 


28  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

probably  had  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of 
Arizona  than  had  any  other  army  officer. 

In  1889  Wood  was  assigned  to  army  head 
quarters  in  Los  Angeles  as  one  of  the  staff  surgeons. 
It  promised  to  be  an  uneventful  assignment,  but 
Wood  did  not  find  it  so.  He  continued  to  devote 
himself  to  his  military  studies,  and  incidentally  to 
engage  in  his  favourite  pastime,  football. 

Up  to  this  time  he  had  served  constantly  as  an 
army  surgeon.  His  work  as  line  officer  in  the 
Indian  campaign  and  on  the  surveying  expedition 
as  well  as  his  study  of  military  science,  was  purely 
voluntary.  The  fact  that  he  was  known  as  a 
resourceful  surgeon  caused  General  Miles  to 
summon  him  to  his  bedside  after  a  serious  ac 
cident.  The  General's  horse  had  fallen  with  him, 
crushing  his  leg.  The  most  skillful  surgeons  of 
Los  Angeles  attended  the  distinguished  patient 
and  all  agreed  that  an  amputation  was  necessary. 

"The  doctors  say  that  they  will  have  to  cut  off 
this  leg,  but  they  are  not  going  to  do  it,"  General 
Miles  said  to  Wood  when  he  arrived.  "I'm  going 
to  leave  it  to  you.  You'll  have  to  save  it." 

After  a  thorough  examination  of  the  injured  leg 
Wood  announced  confidently  that  there  was  no 
necessity  for  amputation.  In  a  reasonable  time 
General  Miles  was  walking  around  on  two  legs,  his 
injury  healed. 


With  Cleveland  and  McKinlcy          29 

In  spite  of  the  severe  lessons  of  the  past,  scat 
tered  bands  of  Indians  would  go  out  on  the  war 
path  now  and  then  only  to  be  rounded  up  by  our 
cavalry  after  a  few  weeks.  In  1888  another  band 
of  Apaches  broke  out  of  the  reservation.  This 
time  the  leader  was  the  Apache  Kid  who  endeav 
oured  to  duplicate  Geronimo's  reign  of  terror  in 
'the  Southwest.  Because  of  his  experience  in  Indian 
fighting,  Wood  was  assigned  to  the  Tenth  Cavalry 
which  crushed  the  savages  in  a  campaign  lasting 
only  a  few  months.  Wood  was  then  ordered  back 
to  California  where  he  served  at  various  posts 
until  1892,  when  he  was  assigned  to  Fort  Mc- 
Pherson  near  Atlanta,  Georgia.  In  the  year  pre 
vious  he  had  been  promoted  to  the  rank  of  captain. 

It  was  at  Fort  McPherson  that  Leonard  Wood 
won  his  greatest  reputation  as  a  football  player. 
For  two  years  he  was  captain  and  coach  of  the 
Georgia  Institute  of  Technology  team,  losing  but 
one  game.  At  that  time  the  rigid  inter-scholastic 
,  rules  which  now  govern  the  sport  had  not  been 
adopted,  and  no  objection  was  found  against  the 
appearance  on  the  gridiron  of  the  husky,  middle- 
aged  army  officer  who  could  buck  the  line  or  shoot 
around  an  end  with  the  impetus  and  speed  of  an 
undergraduate  of  eighteen. 

There  is  an  incident  told  by  one  of  his  fellow 
football  players  which  illustrates  Wood's  Spartan 


30  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

courage  and  recalls  the  tale  of  old  "Oom"  Paul 
Kruger,  the  late  president  of  the  Transvaal,  who 
is  credited  with  having  pulled  out  one  of  his  own 
molars  which  was  aching.  One  day  in  a  football 
scrimmage  Wood  received  a  deep  cut  over  one  eye. 
He  dressed  the  wound  hastily  himself  and  con 
tinued  playing.  After  the  game  he  returned  to  his 
office,  sterilized  the  wound,  and  standing  in  front 
of  his  mirror,  took  four  stitches  in  it. 

During  the  time  of  his  service  in  the  West  he 
had  met  Miss  Louise  A.  Condit  Smith,  a  niece 
of  Chief  Justice  Field  of  the  Supreme  Court.  They 
were  married  after  a  brief  courtship  in  1890.  Their 
union  has  been  a  very  happy  one  and  has  been 
blessed  by  three  children,  two  boys  and  one  girl,( 
now  grown  up  to  manhood  and  womanhood.  Mrs. 
Wood  shared  her  husband's  devotion  to  outdoor 
)life  and  the  simplicity  of  his  tastes.  Both  of  the 
sons  served  in  the  late  war.  As  captain  of  in 
fantry,  Leonard  Wood,  Jr.,  was  more  successful 
than  his  father  in  getting  over  seas  to  fight  in  the 
war  for  democracy.  On  being  discharged  from  the 
army,  he  entered  the  oil  business  in  Texas  in  which 
he  is  still  engaged.  Osborne  C.  Wrood,  the  second 
son,  a  member  of  the  class  of  1920  of  Harvard, 
left  his  studies  shortly  after  war  was  declared 
and  enlisted  as  a  private.  He  won  his  commission 
but  was  not  called  upon  for  overseas  duty.  At 


With  Cleveland  and  McKinley          31 

this  writing  he  is  still  on  active  duty.  Louise 
Wood,  born  in  Havana,  Cuba,  while  her  father 
was  Governor-General  of  the  island,  is  attending 
school  in  the  East. 

As  is  generally  the  case  with  men  of  ambition 
and  initiative,  married  life  brought  co  Leonard 
Wood  a  sharp  sense  of  family  duties  and  respon 
sibilities.  Life  at  the  army  posts  in  California 
and  Georgia  was  pleasant.  His  duties  as  surgeon 
were  light,  and  he  found  ample  time  to  devote 
himself  to  his  family  and  to  football  and  other 
sports.  But  in  the  meantime,  he  was  approach 
ing  middle  age,  the  prospects  for  advancement 
were  meagre,  and  he  felt  that  he  had  accomplished 
little  to  provide  for  the  future  of  his  family.  He 
was  becoming  famous  in  the  South  as  a  football 
player,  but  when  he  took  stock  of  himself,  as  he 
often  did,  he  could  not  help  realizing  that  he  was 
marking  time  just  like  many  of  his  brother  officers. 
In  other  words,  he  was  passing  through  that  un 
pleasant  stage  which  most  army  and  navy  officers 
well  know  when  they  are  speculating  on  leaving 
the  service  and  making  a  fresh  start  in  some  other 
pursuit  offering  more  activity  for  their  talents  and 
greater  financial  rewards  for  their  families  and 
themselves. 

"I  made  up  my  mind  that  if  nothing  happened 
before  I  was  forty,  I  would  resign,"  said  General 


32  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Wood  in  discussing  this  period  of  his  life.  "I 
was  still  in  love  with  the  West,  and  I  was  seriously 
thinking  of  going  in  for  ranching.  I  had  practi 
cally  decided  to  become  a  rancher  when  the  Cuban 
situation  took  a  turn  which  made  it  virtually 
certain  that  we  would  have  to  interfere  sooner  or 
later." 

Even  at  that,  interference  in  Cuba  hung  fire  so 
long  that  Wood,  as  well  as  many  others  who  felt 
deeply  that  it  was  our  duty  to  come  to  the  as 
sistance  of  the  struggling  little  island,  almost  gave 
up  the  hope  that  Uncle  Sam  would  don  the  armour 
of  a  knight  errant,  and  challenge  the  power  of 
Spain. 

When  reports  from  the  Klondike,  whither  thou 
sands  of  adventurous  young  men  had  flocked 
to  make  their  fortunes,  told  of  the  frightful  hard 
ships  which  the  miners  were  suffering,  Captain 
Wood  felt  that  he  had  at  last  found  a  job  to  suit 
his  taste.  Here  was  a  chance  to  combine  useful 
service  with  all  sorts  of  adventures.  He  was 
then  stationed  in  Washington  where  he  had  found 
a  man  after  his  own  heart,  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
On  the  many  long  tramps  which  they  took  around 
Washington  Wood  tried  his  utmost  to  induce 
Roosevelt  to  join  him  on  a  relief  expedition  to  the 
Klondike  to  save  the  miners  from  disease  and 
starvation.  Nothing  but  Roosevelt's  firm  belief 


With  Cleveland  and  McKinley          S3 

that  there  was  a  bigger  job  ahead,  where  their 
country  would  need  their  services  on  the  battle 
field,  prevented  Wood  from  leaving  for  the  wilder 
ness  of  Alaska. 

It  was  his  marriage  that  led  Leonard  Wood 
directly  to  the  great  turning  point  of  his  career — 
his  assignment  to  Washington  in  1895,  where  he 
was  destined  to  form  the  acquaintance  and  win 
the  close  friendship  of  two  of  the  outstanding 
figures  of  American  history  around  the  close  of 
the  last  century — President  Grover  Cleveland 
and  President  William  McKinley,  and  of  a  third 
man,  who  was  just  looming  into  national  prom 
inence,  Theodore  Roosevelt. 

Washington,  with  its  social  glitter,  was  most  at 
tractive  to  a  certain  type  in  army  and  navy  offi 
cialdom.  It  was  an  ideal  place  for  officers  who 
were  blessed  with  private  fortunes,  and  whose 
wives  had  social  aspirations.  Captain  Wood  was 
inclined  to  look  upon  the  Capital  as  a  respectable 
morgue  for  a  man  in  his  position,  and  Mrs.  Wood 
had  no  social  ambitions,  but  she  had  lived  much 
of  her  life  in  Washington.  Many  of  her  girlhood 
friends  and  close  relatives  resided  there.  She  had 
always  been  a  great  favourite  of  her  distinguished 
uncle,  Mr.  Justice  Field,  and  he  had  often  ex 
pressed  the  desire  that  she  and  her  family  might 
be  near  him  in  his  declining  years. 


34  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Captain  Wood,  who  had  already  begun  to  think 
seriously  of  doffing  his  uniform  for  the  overalls 
of  a  rancher,  thought  it  would  make  little  dif 
ference  whether  he  spent  a  year  or  two  in  Wash 
ington  before  resigning  his  commission.  Life  at 
the  national  Capital  might  offer  a  pleasant  diver 
sion  and  bring  him  in  contact  with  interesting 
figures  in  public  life,  and  in  later  years  he  mighty 
be  able  to  sketch  word  pictures  of  Senator  Blank 
and  Congressman  Blink  for  the  amusement  of  his 
children. 

There  was  no  private  fortune  on  which  to  draw. 
Wood  had  only  his  captain's  salary,  and  life  in 
the  Capital  was  expensive  compared  with  that 
at  an  army  post  like  Fort  McPherson.  In  view  of 
these  facts  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  would  have 
accepted  the  Washington  appointment  if  Mrs. 
Wood  had  not  been  drawn  thither  by  family  and 
friendship  ties.  His  title  in  Washington  was 
that  of  Assistant  Attending  Surgeon.  He  was 
the  official  physician  of  the  Secretary  of  War 
and  the  medical  adviser  of  army  officers  and  their 
families  residing  in  the  Capital.  The  naval  sur 
geons,  attending  the  President  and  his  family, 
might  call  him  into  consultation  if  they  felt  like  so 
doing. 

There  was  this  much  to  be  said  for  his  new  post : 
it  gave  him  as  a  physician  a  group  of  distinguished 


With  Cleveland  and  McKinley          35 

clients  and  brought  him  into  contact  with  some 
of  the  country's  leading  political  figures,  even  if  it 
gave  him  no  additional  emoluments.  On  the 
other  hand,  Wood  was  thinking  of  dropping  both 
his  professions  as  soldier  and  physician. 

It  has  been  said  of  Cleveland  that  he  picked  his 
friends  with  great  care  and  dropped  them  bluntly 
if  they  did  not  measure  up  to  his  standards.  He 
was  finishing  his  second  term  when  Wood  first 
met  him.  Wood  at  that  time  was  thirty-five 
years  old,  hard  as  nails,  physically,  his  face  bronzed 
by  his  out-of-door  life  and  exercise.  Cleveland 
received  him  kindly  and  it  was  evident  that  he 
liked  this  stocky,  self-reliant  army  officer,  for 
soon  Wood  began  to  receive  calls  to  the  White 
House  to  attend  the  Cleveland  family.  Cleve 
land  found  in  Wood  not  only  a  doctor  in  whom  he 
had  confidence,  but  a  kindred  spirit.  Here  was  a 
man  who  knew  little  of  politics  and  less  of  society, 
but  did  know  a  great  deal  about  shooting  and 
fishing,  the  President's  favourite  sports.  He  liked 
to  chat  with  Wood  about  the  latter's  Western  ex 
periences,  and  in  turn  Wood  loved  to  hear  the 
President  recall  his  early  career,  his  political  bat 
tles  in  New  York,  and  his  fishing  and  hunting 
adventures. 

Wood  was  one  of  a  party  invited  by  Cleveland 
for  a  cruise  off  Cape  Hatteras  shortly  after  the 


36  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

inauguration  of  President  McKinley.  It  was  a 
delightful  vacation.  Off  duty,  Grover  Cleveland 
would  drop  his  official  dignity  and  talk  freely  of 
men  and  politics,  and  now  he  was  a  private  citizen 
once  more,  and  glad  to  be  rid  of  the  burdens  of  his 
office.  Wood  has  written  the  following  sketch 
of  Grover  Cleveland  as  he  appeared  on  leaving 
office: 

I  remember  very  well  his  words,  as  he  sat  down  with 
a  sigh  of  relief,  glad  that  it  was  all  over.  He  said:  "I 
have  had  a  long  talk  with  President  McKinley.  He  is 
an  honest,  sincere,  and  serious  man.  I  feel  that  he  is 
going  to  do  his  best  to  give  the  country  a  good  ad 
ministration.  He  impressed  me  as  a  man  who  will  have 
the  best  interest  of  the  people  at  heart." 

Then  he  stopped  and  said  with  a  sigh:  "I  envy  him 
to-day  only  one  thing,  and  that  was  the  presence  of 
his  own  mother  at  his  inauguration.  I  would  have 
given  anything  in  the  world  if  my  mother  could  have 
been  at  my  inauguration,"  and  then,  continuing:  "I 
wish  him  well.  He  has  a  hard  task,"  and  after  a  long 
pause:  "But  he  is  a  good  man  and  will  do  his  best." 

There  was  one  subject  in  particular  where  Cleve 
land  and  Wood  met  on  a  common  ground  and 
that  was  in  their  discussion  of  the  region  around 
Buzzards  Bay.  Here  they  had  both  fished  and 
hunted, — Wood  when  he  was  a  boy,  and  Cleveland, 
when  he  was  the  head  of  the  nation,  accompanied 


With  Cleveland  and  McKinley          37 

by  his  old  cronies,  such  as  Joe  Jefferson,  the  actor, 
and  others. 

As  a  rule,  military  officials  are  little  affected  by 
changes  in  the  national  administration,  and  after 
McKinley's  arrival  in  the  White  House  Wood 
found  himself  occupying  relatively  the  same  posi 
tion  that  he  had  held  under  Cleveland.  He  be 
came  one  of  the  attending  physicians  who  watched 
over  the  invalid  wife  of  President  McKinley.  As 
his  duties  took  him  daily  to  the  White  House,  he 
soon  grew  to  know  intimately  its  new  occupants. 
At  the  same  time,  life  in  Washington  began  to 
assume  a  new  and  a  more  tense  aspect.  The  out 
look  in  Cuba  was  growing  serious,  and  Captain 
Wood  was  thinking  rather  less  of  ranching  and 
more  of  active  service  for  his  country. 

Leonard  Wood  first  met  Theodore  Roosevelt 
at  a  social  function  given  in  the  Lowndes  house  in 
Washington  in  1896.  Roosevelt  was  then  Assist 
ant  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  After  a  few  moments' 
conversation  the  two  discovered  that  they  had 
just  missed  each  other  at  Harvard.  Roosevelt, 
two  years  older  than  Wood,  had  graduated  in  the 
spring  of  1880.  Wood  had  entered  in  the  fall 
of  the  same  year.  Both  had  succumbed  to  the 
Western  fever  early  in  their  youth,  and  both  had 
reached  middle  age  with  a  remarkable  similarity 
of  views,  retaining  a  clean,  boyish  enthusiasm  for 


38  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

sports,  athletic  games,  and  all  keen  physical 
exercise,  and  a  boyish  admiration  for  feats  of 
physical  strength  and  prowess.  Roosevelt  never 
did  outgrow  this  youthful  quality.  It  was  this 
gift  of  the  gods  which  all  people  who  knew  him 
loved  in  him  best  of  all 

They  walked  home  together  that  night  talking 
of  the  West,  of  the  clean  sports  to  which  both  were 
devoted,  and  in  the  course  of  that  evening  began 
a  friendship  which  was  to  last  till  the  death  of 
Roosevelt. 

"Did  you  and  Roosevelt  ever  have  a  scrap?" 
General  Wood  was  asked  at  one  time  by  an  im 
pertinent  questioner. 

"Never,"  was  the  decisive  reply.  "No,  we 
never  had  a  quarrel.  We  often  disputed.  We 
had  our  differences,  but  there  never  was  a  break 
in  our  relationship.  Our  friendship  was  based 
on  our  common  likes  and  dislikes.  We  both 
loved  sports  and  out-of-door  life.  Roosevelt  had 
opportunities  which  I  never  had  for  study  and 
travel  and  exploration.  However  much  I  should 
have  liked  to  have  done  so,  I  never  could  devote 
myself  to  the  natural  sciences  as  he  did.  We  were 
in  accord  in  our  political  views,  believing  in  simple 
and  equal  justice  to  all  classes.  Both  of  us  felt 
particularly  strongly  on  the  Cuban  situation.  We 
felt  that  it  was  our  duty  to  free  the  island  from  the 


With  Cleveland  and  McKinley          39 

outrageous  injustice  of  Spanish  rule,  and  feeling 
as  we  did  that  we  should  have  to  intervene  sooner 
or  later,  both  of  us  did  all  in  our  power  to  urge 
preparedness  for  the  struggle. 

"There  was  very  little  that  I  could  do,  but 
Roosevelt  was  in  a  position  to  do  much  to  prepare 
the  navy  for  the  war  and  he  was  not  found  wanting 
in  his  duty." 

The  friendship  of  Roosevelt  and  Wood  has  no 
parallel  in  the  public  life  of  our  country.  Both 
were  men  of  great  strength  of  character  and  con 
viction,  both  ardent  believers  in  American  de 
mocracy  and  institutions,  and  both  possessed  that 
quality  of  picturesqueness  which  appealed  greatly 
to  the  people  of  this  country.  They  both  came 
from  the  East,  one  a  New  Englander  and  a  de 
scendant  of  the  people,  and  the  other  a  New  Yorker 
of  the  aristocratic  Dutch  stock  on  his  father's  side 
and  of  the  aristocratic  South  on  his  mother's  side; 
and  yet  they  savoured  in  their  speech,  their  ap 
pearance,  and  in  their  personal  and  mental  habits, 
of  the  open  Western  country.  It  seems  curious 
that  two  men  who  so  often  proved  their  qualities 
of  leadership  should  never  clash  during  the  many 
years  of  their  association. 

The  explanation  lies  in  the  deep  respect  each 
man  had  for  the  other.  There  is  an  extremely 
interesting  remark  of  Wood's  quoted  by  members 


40  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

of  the  Harvard  Club  of  New  York.  Roosevelt 
and  Wood  were  guests  of  honour  at  an  informal 
affair  in  the  club  one  night  after  Roosevelt  had 
finished  his  second  term  as  President.  The  toast- 
master  introduced  Wood  as  the  ex-President's 
commanding  officer  in  the  Spanish-American  War. 
Wood,  referring  to  the  days  of  the  Rough  Riders, 
said: 

"President  Roosevelt  was  the  most  subordinate 
subordinate  I  ever  had." 

Roosevelt  might  have  said  the  same  of  Wood. 
When  he  was  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army 
and  Navy,  Wood  found  no  occasion  to  dispute  his 
authority. 

They  took  it  out  on  each  other  with  single-sticks, 
substitutes  for  broad-swords,  with  which  they 
fenced;  with  the  boxing  gloves,  which  they  often 
put  on;  in  wrestling  matches;  football  scraps,  which 
they  staged  with  junior  army  officers  and  others 
around  the  Capital,  and  in  stiff  jaunts  over  the 
hills  and  valleys  near  Washington.  The  spirit 
was  always  one  of  jest  and  good  humour,  but  it 
took  a  good  man  to  stand  up  under  the  blows 
dealt  by  Wood's  right  in  a  boxing  match;  and 
Roosevelt  at  play  was  no  gentle  gamboling  lamb. 

They  shared  vacant  lots  about  Washington  with 
the  school  youngsters  of  the  city,  kicking  the  foot 
ball  around  on  autumn  afternoons.  They  made 


With  Cleveland  and  McKinley          41 

brave  efforts  to  ski  down  hills  and  ravines  which 
barely  had  enough  snow  to  cover  the  grass.  On 
many  of  their  rambles  about  the  environs  of  the 
city  they  were  accompanied  by  their  sturdy 
youngsters,  for  the  family  ties  of  both  men  were 
very  strong.  They  were  so  nearly  matched  hi/ 
strength  that  they  found  an  added  pleasure  hi 
boxing  and  wrestling.  Later,  when  Roosevelt: 
had  become  President,  and  Wood  famous  for  his 
Cuban  administration,  Washington  was  inclined 
to  pull  long  faces  over  their  boxing  and  wrestling 
bouts. 

Wood  to-day  admits  that  it  was  largely  due  to 
Roosevelt  that  he  remained  in  Washington.  He 
was  bored  with  the  inaction  and  longed  for  the 
West.  He  stood  high  in  his  profession  as  physi 
cian  and  surgeon — one  of  the  most  honourable  of 
professions,  but  it  so  happened  that  he  was  not 
cast  in  that  mould.  His  nature  required  more 
active  and  strenuous  life.  Roosevelt  was  certain 
that  the  Cuban  situation  would  soon  compel  the 
United  States  to  act,  and  urged  Wood  to  defer  his 
ranching  venture. 

But  the  President  moved  cautiously.  He  had 
served  in  the  Civil  War  and  knew  what  war  was. 
The  delay  was  not  without  its  value  for  Roosevelt 
and  Wood,  who  had  time  to  mature  their  plans. 
Before  war  was  declared  by  an  act  of  Congress  they 


42  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

had  thought  of  organizing  a  volunteer  regiment 
composed  of  exceptionally  hardy  and  adventurous 
young  men.  However,  the  idea  of  the  Rough 
Riders  did  not  originate  until  after  the  declaration 
of  war,  when  it  was  conceived  by  United  States 
Senator  Francis  E.  Warren  of  Wyoming.  Senator 
Warren  proposed  that  Congress  authorize  the 
[Organization  of  three  volunteer  regiments  of 
cavalry  to  be  made  up  of  the  wild  riders  and  ad 
venturers  from  the  Western  plains  and  mount ains. 
Congress  did  so,  and  Wood  immediately  made  ap 
plication  for  commission  as  Colonel  of  one  of  these 
regiments  to  be  known  as  the  First  United  States 
Volunteer  Cavalry.  This  was  the  official  name 
of  the  regiment  which  soon  after  its  organization 
began  was  dubbed  the  Rough  Riders.  Roosevelt 
was  commissioned  Lieutenant-Colonel. 

Senator  Warren's  original  idea  which  made  a 
dramatic  appeal  to  the  youth  of  the  country  was 
only  modified  to  the  extent  that  Wood  and  Roose 
velt  as  leaders  of  the  First  Cavalry  drew  a  large 
number  of  Eastern  athletes  and  sportsmen,  college 
men  and  social  leaders,  and  members  of  some  of 
the  best-known  families  of  the  land.  The  com 
position  of  the  regiment,  made  up  as  it  was  of 
Western  cowpunchers,  miners,  gamblers,  Indians, 
and  Eastern  aristocrats,  each  one  of  whom  could 
fight  his  own  weight  in  wildcats,  made  it  some- 


With  Cleveland  and  McKinley          43 

what  resemble  the  world-famous  French  Foreign 
Legion,  with  the  exception  that  it  was  thoroughly 
national,  thoroughly  American. 

There  were  a  few  minor  hitches  in  the  way. 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  John  D.  Long,  under  whom 
Roosevelt  had  served  as  first  assistant,  strongly 
objected  to  his  leaving  the  department,  but  Roose 
velt  was  not  the  sort  of  a  man  to  remain  in  a 
subordinate  berth  when  there  were  prospects  for 
active  service  in  the  field.  Russell  A.  Alger, 
Secretary  of  War,  offered  Roosevelt  the  colonelcy 
of  a  regiment,  but  as  the  latter  knew  little  or  noth 
ing  of  military  science,  he  refused.  Fortunately, 
Wood  and  Roosevelt  managed  to  cut  through  the 
departmental  red  tape  which  came  so  near  strang 
ling  our  war  preparations  in  1898.  As  a  result 
the  Rough  Riders  were  the  first  volunteer  regi 
ment  to  be  ready  for  the  front. 


IV 

COMMANDER  OF  THE  ROUGH  RIDERS 

IN  HIS  history  of  the  Rough  Riders,  Roosevelt 
wrote:  "We  started  with  the  odds  in  our  favour." 

The  difficulties  in  recruiting  were  of  a  minus 
quantity,  consisting  of  rejecting  men.  Wood 
had  been  in  the  army  long  enough  to  be  thoroughly 
conversant  with  departmental  red  tape  and  how  to 
avoid  it.  He  knew  just  what  he  wanted,  and 
knew  how  to  cut  corners  in  obtaining  the  materials 
he  required  if  it  was  possible  to  do  so. 

As  the  official  physician  of  Secretary  of  War 
Alger,  Wood  had  come  to  know  him  intimately 
and  win  his  trust.  Alger  recognized  in  him  a 
practical  military  man  who  had  made  an  excel 
lent  record  in  the  Apache  wars.  Observing  the 
hopeless  mass  of  confusion  which  existed  in  the 
War  Department,  Wood  hit  upon  the  plan  of  go 
ing  to  the  Secretary  of  War  and  requesting  a 
carte  blanche  to  go  ahead  with  organizing  and 
equipping  the  regiment.  Alger  was  delighted 
with  this  arrangement  and  said : 

44 


Commander  of  the  Rough  Riders        45 

"Go  right  ahead  and  don't  let  me  hear  a  word 
from  you  until  your  regiment  is  raised.  When 
your  requisition  and  other  papers  are  ready,  bring 
them  to  me  to  sign,  and  I'll  sign  them." 

Armed  with  this  authority,  Wood,  who  knew 
what  he  needed  to  equip  a  cavalry  regiment, 
gained  a  long  lead  on  all  of  the  other  volunteer 
units.  Wood  had  seen  enough  of  actual  fighting 
to  realize  how  impossible  it  is  to  follow  to  the 
letter  all  military  rules  and  regulations  in  war 
times.  The  regulations  called  for  the  use  of  sa 
bers  by  cavalry.  It  takes  a  long  time  to  train  men 
in  the  skillful  use  of  sabers  and  speed  was  a  prime 
necessity  at  this  time.  Moreover,  Wood  did  not 
think  that  sabers  would  make  a  practical  weapon 
for  volunteers  mounted  on  half-wild  Western 
horses.  It  occurred  to  him  that  the  machete  would 
be  a  much  better  weapon  to  use  in  Cuba,  and  he 
knew  of  a  New  England  firm  which  manufactured 
these  tools  for  the  Cuban  sugar  fields.  So  ma 
chetes  were  ordered  for  the  Rough  Riders.  Wood 
wanted  Krag-Jorgensen  carbines  with  smokeless 
cartridges,  for  he  expected  that  his  cavalrymen 
might  make  themselves  useful  fighting  as  infantry. 
But  the  Krags  were  scarce.  Wood  knew  where 
to  go  for  the  few  that  were  in  stock  without  wast 
ing  steps.  He  went  to  General  Flagler,  explaining 
what  he  had  done  and  telling  him  that  he  was  in  a 


46  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

hurry  to  equip  his  regiment.  General  Flagler 
promptly  put  through  the  order  for  him  and  the 
Rough  Riders  were  fully  equipped  with  weapons 
and  ammunition  when  other  organizations  had 
neither. 

The  War  Department  was  swamped  with  orders 
for  uniforms.  When  Wood  called  upon  the  Quar 
termaster-General  for  clothes,  he  received  a  curt 
reply,  saying  that  no  uniforms  were  available. 
The  answer  did  not  discourage  Wood  in  the  least. 

"Our  men  can  wear  the  ordinary  army  brown 
canvas  working  clothes,"  he  said. 

Realizing  that  most  of  the  drilling  and  all  of  the 
fighting  would  be  done  in  a  warm  climate,  Wood 
foresaw  that  the  lighter  army  brown  uniforms, 
not  so  handsome  as  the  regulation  blue,  would  be 
far  more  serviceable.  This  proved  to  be  a  fact. 
The  two  innovations  introduced  by  him  in  equip 
ping  the  Rough  Riders,  the  substitution  of  the 
machete  for  the  saber  and  of  the  light  working 
uniform  for  the  heavier  blue,  proved  successful. 
The  machete  was  found  to  be  an  instrument  which 
could  be  used  for  all  sorts  of  things,  from  killing 
Spaniards  and  cutting  cane  and  underbrush  to 
sharpening  lead  pencils. 

The  mustering  places  of  the  regiment  were  in 
New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Oklahoma,  and  the  Indian 
Territory.  The  response  was  so  heavy  that  Wood 


Commander  of  the  Rough  Riders        47 

and  Roosevelt  could  have  raised  a  brigade  or 
division.  The  number  of  men  allotted  to  the 
First  Volunteer  Cavalry  was  780  but  was  soon 
raised  to  1,000. 

"We  drew  recruits  from  Harvard,  Yale,  Prince 
ton,  and  other  colleges;  from  clubs  like  the  Somer 
set  of  Boston  and  Knickerbocker  of  New  York; 
and  from  among  the  men  who  belonged  neither 
to  club  nor  college,  but  in  whose  veins  the  blood 
stirred  with  the  same  impulse  which  once  sent  the 
Vikings  over  sea,"  Theodore  Roosevelt  wrote  in 
his  story  of  the  Rough  Riders. 

Among  the  recruits  were  star  football  and  tennis 
players  and  other  college  athletes,  such  as  Dudley 
Dean,  Harvard  quarterback;  Robert  Wrenn, 
another  quarter,  and  at  that  time  the  champion 
tennis  player  of  the  country;  Hamilton  Fish,  cap 
tain  of  the  Columbia  crew;  and  Woodbury  Kane, 
a  famous  yachtsman  and  society  leader.  All  of 
these  young  men  enlisted  as  troopers,  took  their 
turn  at  kitchen  duty  and  the  other  disagreeable 
tasks  which  devolves  on  a  fighting  man.  Young 
Wall  Street  bankers  and  brokers,  who  measured 
up  to  the  high  physical  standard  set,  abandoned 
their  offices  and  their  luxurious  homes,  just  as 
did  their  sons  and  nephews  in  the  late  war,  and 
enlisted,  neither  seeking  nor  obtaining  preferential 
treatment. 


48  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

The  mess  mates  and  buddies  of  these  Eastern 
aristocrats  were  broncho  busters  and  cowboys 
from  the  Southwest,  Texas  Rangers  and  Western 
sheriffs  and  deputy  sheriffs,  bear  and  buffalo 
hunters  from  the  Rocky  Mountain  regions,  Chero- 
kees,  Chickasaws,  Choctaws,  and  Creeks  from  the 
Indian  Territory.  Some  of  the  recruits  were 
veterans  of  Indian  wars,  and  all  of  them  were 
imbued  with  that  spirit  of  patriotism  and  adventure 
which  characterized  the  leaders  of  the  regiment. 
All  of  them  were,  of  course,  crack  horsemen  and 
crack  shots.  There  was  no  difficulty  in  finding 
competent  officers.  Most  of  the  captains  and 
lieutenants  had  served  in  the  regular  army  and  had 
resigned  their  commissions  to  enter  civil  life. 
Most  of  them  knew  Colonel  Wood  or  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Roosevelt  personally.  Two  were  West 
Pointers.  They  were  excellent  drill  masters  and 
had  seen  enough  of  the  Far  West  to  know  just  how 
to  handle  the  rough  material  before  them  and 
develop  it  into  a  disciplined  unit.  To  accomplish 
this  without  fight  and  bloodshed  required  no  less 
tact  than  military  skill.  No  officer  could  afford 
to  assume  an  overbearing  attitude  toward  these 
free-born  Westerners  who  were  unacquainted  with 
army  regulations  and  customs.  Roosevelt  tells  of 
one  rangy  recruit  from  the  Southwest  who  dropped 
into  Colonel  Wood's  tent  one  evening  and  said: 


Commander  of  the  Rough  Riders        49 

"Well,  Colonel,  I  want  to  shake  hands  with  you 
and  say  we're  with  you.  We  didn't  know  how  we 
would  like  you  fellers  at  first,  but  you're  all  right 
and  you  know  your  business,  and  you  mean  busi 
ness,  and  you  can  count  on  us  every  time." 

"The  faults  they  committed  were  those  of 
ignorance  merely,"  Roosevelt  writes.  "When 
Holderman,  the  cook,  in  announcing  dinner  for  the 
Colonel  and  the  three  Majors,  genially  remarked, 
'If  you  fellers  don't  come  soon  everything  will  get 
cold,'  he  had  no  thought  of  other  than  a  kindly  and 
respectful  regard  for  their  welfare,  and  was  glad 
to  modify  his  form  of  address  on  being  told  that  it 
was  not  what  could  be  described  as  conventionally 
military." 

Whatever  may  be  the  world  record  in  organizing 
and  drilling  a  regiment  to  the  point  where  it 
could  give  good  account  of  itself  in  an  engagement 
with  veteran  troops,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  record 
of  Wood  and  Roosevelt  in  whipping  the  Rough 
Riders  into  shape  would  stand  near  the  top.  The 
United  States  declared  war  on  Spain  April  26, 
1898,  and  on  May  29th  the  Rough  Riders  left  their 
training  camp  at  San  Antonio,  Texas,  and  boarded 
trains  for  Tampa,  Florida,  to  be  transported  to 
Cuba. 

In  thirty -three  days  the  commander  of  the  regi 
ment  and  his  able  and  strenuous  Lieutenant- 


50  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Colonel  recruited,  organized,  officered,  and  equip 
ped  1,000  men  and  they  had  given  the  soldiers 
enough  drilling  to  enable  them  to  win  the  greatest 
fame  of  any  single  regiment  in  the  Spanish-Amer 
ican  War.  The  Rough  Riders  received  only 
twenty -one  days  of  actual  drilling.  When  we 
recall  what  a  hopeless  muddle  the  War  Depart 
ment  was  in  at  the  time,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
to  find  clothing,  arms,  ammunition,  and  mounts 
for  a  regiment  in  about  a  month's  time  was  in  it 
self  something  of  an  achievement.  The  state  of 
affairs  in  the  War  Department  is  best  illustrated 
by  the  following  story  which  Wood  loves  to  tell: 

"A  certain  high  military  officer  in  Washington 
whom  I  met  one  day  was  much  upset  by  the  sud 
den  war  activity,  and  remarked:  'Here  I  had  a 
magnificent  system;  my  office  and  department 
were  in  good  working  order,  and  this  damned  war 
comes  along  and  breaks  it  all  up.' ' 

The  high  officer,  who  made  this  amusing  re 
mark,  was  talking  to  the  right  man.  Wood  did 
as  much  as  anybody  to  break  up  the  obsolete 
bureaucratic  system  of  the  War  Department  for 
the  inefficiency  of  which  Secretary  of  War  Alger 
received  perhaps  more  than  his  due  share  of  the 
blame. 

The  journey  from  San  Antonio  to  Tampa  took 
four  days.  At  the  latter  place,  or  rather  at  Port 


Commander  of  the  Rough  Riders        51 

Tampa,  where  the  troops  embarked,  Wood  showed 
his  usual  resourcefulness  in  securing  a  transport. 
This  service  was  in  the  same  mess  as  everything 
else.  After  the  Yucatan,  lying  in  midstream,  had 
been  allotted  to  the  Rough  Riders,  Wood  and 
Roosevelt  discovered  accidentally  that  this  ship 
had  been  assigned  to  two  other  regiments  waiting 
to  embark.  Wood  immediately  seized  a  launch, 
boarded  the  ship  and  took  possession,  while  Roose 
velt  rounded  up  the  regiment  and  marched  it  at 
double-quick  to  the  quay,  just  in  time  to  board 
the  vessel  ahead  of  the  other  two  regiments. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  narrative  to  relate 
once  more  the  often-told  story  of  the  Rough  Riders. 
The  regiment  landed  in  Cuba  June  22d  under  the 
protection  of  shellfire  from  American  war  vessels, 
and  on  the  day  following  came  the  order  to  ad 
vance.  The  Battle  of  Las  Guasimas  took  place 
on  June  24th,  the  Rough  Riders  under  Wood's 
command  occupying  the  left  wing  of  the  American 
forces. 

"When  the  firing  opened  some  of  the  men  began 
to  curse,"  Roosevelt  writes.  "'Don't  swear — 
shoot!'  growled  Wood,  as  he  strode  along  the  path 
leading  his  horse,  and  everyone  laughed  and  be 
came  cool  again.  The  Spanish  outposts  were  very 
near  our  advance  guard  and  some  minutes  of  the 
hottest  kind  of  firing  followed  before  they  were 


52  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

driven  back  and  slipped  off  through  the  jungle  to 
their  main  lines  in  the  rear." 

Later,  in  his  description  of  the  action,  Roosevelt 
writes : 

When  I  came  to  the  front  I  found  the  men  spread  out 
in  a  very  thin  skirmish  line,  advancing  through  com 
paratively  open  ground,  each  man  taking  advantage  of 
what  cover  he  could  while  Wood  strolled  about  leading 
his  horse.  .  .  .  How  Wood  escaped  being  hit  I 
do  not  see  and  still  less  how  his  horse  escaped. 

Major-General  Joseph  Wheeler,  in  command  of 
the  cavalry  troops  at  Las  Guasimas,  made  the  fol 
lowing  official  report  on  the  Rough  Riders : 

Colonel  Wood's  regiment  was  on  the  extreme  left 
of  the  line  and  too  far  distant  for  me  to  be  a  personal 
witness  of  the  individual  conduct  of  his  officers  and 
men;  but  the  magnificent  and  brave  work  done  by  the 
regiment  under  the  lead  of  Colonel  Wood  testifies  to 
his  courage  and  skill.  The  energy  and  determination 
of  this  officer  had  been  marked  from  the  moment  he 
reported  to  me  at  Tampa,  Florida,  and  I  have  abundant 
evidence  of  his  brave  and  good  conduct  on  the  field  and 
I  recommend  him  for  consideration  of  the  Government. 

On  June  25th,  Brigadier-General  S.  B.  M.  Young, 
wh©  had  played  a  distinguished  part  in  the  Battle 
of  Las  Guasimas,  went  down  with  the  fever.  Gen 
eral  Wlaseler  thereupon  advanced  Wood  to  fill  the 


Commander  of  tJie  Rough  Riders        53 

vacancy.  Henceforth,  throughout  the  siege  of  San 
tiago,  he  was  in  command  of  the  Second  Cavalry 
Brigade,  serving  dismounted.  This  left  Roosevelt 
in  command  of  the  Rough  Riders.  The  promo 
tion  of  Wood  and  Roosevelt  was  confirmed  soon 
afterward. 

In  an  official  report  dated  June  29th,  Brigadier- 
General  Young,  whose  illness  hastened  Wood's 
promotion,  wrote: 

I  cannot  speak  too  highly  of  the  efficient  manner  in 
which  Colonel  Wood  handled  his  regiment  and  of  his 
magnificent  behaviour  on  the  field.  The  conduct 
of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Roosevelt,  as  reported  to  me 
by  my  two  aides,  deserves  my  highest  commendation. 
Both  Colonel  Wood  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Roosevelt 
disdained  to  take  advantage  of  shelter  or  cover  from  the 
enemy's  fire  while  any  of  their  men  remained  exposed 
to  it — an  error  of  judgment,  but  happily  on  the  heroic 
side. 

Methods  in  warfare  have  changed.  To-day 
General  Wood  probably  would  regretfully  repri 
mand  an  officer  who  exposed  himself  in  battle 
unless  it  was  absolutely  necessary.  In  the  Span 
ish-American  War  the  old  tradition  prevailed  that 
an  officer  must  at  all  times  show  utter  disregard 
for  danger  and  thus  set  an  example  of  heroism. 

There  has  been  much  dispute  as  to  what  the 
Rough  Riders  under  Wood  actually  accomplished 


54  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

in  the  first  engagement  at  Las  Guasimas.  Ever 
since  the  Spanish-American  War  we  have  often 
heard  it  said  that  the  great  reputation  of  the  regi 
ment  was  made  by  newspaper  correspondents  and 
by  the  prestige  which  later  attached  to  the  name 
of  Theodore  Roosevelt. 

As  a  further  testimony  of  the  gallant  behaviour 
of  the  regiment  and  of  Wood's  quality  as  an  officer, 
the  folio  wing  extract  from  a  heretofore  unpublished 
letter  written  by  the  late  Richard  Harding  Davis 
to  his  brother,  Charles  Belmont  Davis,  two  days 
after  the  Battle  of  Las  Guasimas  and  dated,  "In 
Sight  of  Santiago,  June  26,  1898,"  may  be  of  in 
terest  : 

General  Chaffee  told  me  to-day  that  it  was  Wood's 
charge  that  won  the  day.  Without  it  the  Tenth  could 
not  have  driven  the  Spanish  back.  Wood  is  a  great 
young  man.  He  has  only  one  idea,  or  rather  all  his 
ideas  run  in  one  direction,  his  regiment.  He  eats  and 
talks  nothing  else.  He  never  sleeps  more  than  four 
hours  and  all  the  rest  of  the  time  he  is  moving  about 
among  the  tents. 


THE  RESCUER  OF  SANTIAGO 

IN  ALL  of  history  there  is  no  parallel  to  the 
service  rendered  by  the  United  States  in  Cuba. 
This  is  not  a  boast;  it  is  simply  a  fact.  Nations 
have  come  to  the  aid  of  sister  nations  in  time  of 
need  and  have  shed  their  blood  to  expel  foreign 
foes  or  crush  native  tyrants.  But  the  rescuer 
generally  has  remained  as  sovereign  or  has  de 
manded  and  received  a  price  in  cash  or  trade  con 
cessions.  Sometimes  the  rescuer  has  fought  be 
cause  his  own  interests  were  jeopardized  through 
the  invasion  of  a  neighbouring  nation's  territory. 

Great  Britain  restored  peace  and  some  degree 
of  security  and  prosperity  in  Egypt  and  India 
when  these  countries  were  committing  suicide 
through  internal  warfare  and  misrule;  but  the 
British  flag  still  flies  in  Egypt  and  India.  Both 
countries  may  have  been  benefited  as  a  whole 
through  British  occupation,  but  England  has  lost 
nothing  on  the  transaction. 

Sweden  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War  came  to 

65 


56  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

the  rescue  of  the  Protestant  states  of  Germany; 
but  the  Swedes,  who  entered  Germany  as  cham 
pions  of  the  Reformation,  remained  as  conquerors 
on  German  territory  till  they  were  driven  out. 

The  United  States  not  only  freed  Cuba  from 
Spain,  but  saved  her  from  the  tropical  pestilences 
and  filth  diseases  which  were  decimating  the 
population,  restored  her  civil  and  commercial 
institutions,  founded  her  public  school  system,  re 
organized  her  laws  and  her  courts,  then  established 
her  as  an  independent  republic. 

And  the  chief  instrument  of  the  United  States 
in  this  monumental  labour — the  finest  service 
ever  rendered  by  one  nation  to  another — was  Gen 
eral  Leonard  Wood. 

The  most  remarkable  feature  of  his  success  in 
Cuba  is  the  fact  that  General  Wood  entered  on  his 
duties  there  utterly  untrained  in  administrative 
affairs;  yet  in  summarizing  his  qualifications  for 
his  post,  Ray  Stannard  Baker  wrote  as  follows  in 
McClure's  Magazine  in  1900: 

There  are  not  many  men  in  this  or  any  other  country 
who  could  have  gone  into  the  Santiago  of  August,  1898, 
with  its  thousands  of  dead  and  dying,  its  reeking  filth, 
its  starvation,  its  utter  prostration,  and  made  of  it  in 
four  months'  time  a  clean,  healthy,  and  orderly  city. 
Another  soldier  might  have  been  chosen  who  could  have 
preserved  order  as  well  as  did  General  Wood;  a  lawyer 


The  Rescuer  of  Santiago  57 

might  have  organized  the  judicial  system,  and  a  physi 
cian  reestablished  the  hospitals;  but  it  would  not  have 
been  easy  to  find  another  man  with  the  varied  material 
equipment  and  the  requisite  physical  endurance  to 
serve  in  a  tropical  country  as  a  lawmaker,  judge,  and 
governor,  all  in  one;  to  build  roads  and  sewers,  to 
establish  hospitals;  to  organize  a  school  system,  and 
devise  a  scheme  of  finance;  to  deal  amicably  with  a 
powerful  church  influence,  and  yet  to  appear,  in  spite  of 
such  autocracy,  the  most  popular  man  in  the  province. 

Writing  in  the  Harvard  Graduates'  Magazine 
in  1902,  Theodore  Roosevelt  said: 

Leonard  Wood  four  years  ago  went  down  to  Cuba, 
has  served  there  ever  since,  has  rendered  services  to 
that  country  of  the  kind  which  if  performed  three 
thousand  years  ago  would  have  made  him  a  hero  mixed 
up  with  the  Sun  God  in  various  ways;  a  man  who  devoted 
his  whole  life  through  those  four  years,  who  thought  of 
nothing  else,  did  nothing  else,  save  to  try  to  bring  up 
the  standard  of  political  and  social  life  in  that  Island,  to 
teach  the  people  after  four  centuries  of  misrule  that  there 
were  such  things  as  governmental  righteousness  and 
honesty  and  fair  play  for  all  men  on  their  merits  as  men. 

Some  years  later,  after  Wood  had  finished  his 
Philippine  mission  and  had  become  Chief-of-Staff 
under  President  Taft,  Colonel  Roosevelt  wrote 
of  him  in  The  Outlook: 

Like  almost  all  of  the  men  mentioned,  as  well  as  their 
colleagues,  General  Wood  of  course  incurred  the  violent 


58  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

hatred  of  many  dishonest  schemers  and  unscrupulous 
adventurers,  and  of  a  few  more  or  less  well-meaning 
persons  who  were  misled  by  these  schemers  and  ad 
venturers;  but  it  is  astounding  to  any  one  acquainted 
with  the  facts  to  realize,  not  merely  what  he  accom 
plished,  but  how  he  succeeded  in  gaining  the  good  will 
of  the  enormous  majority  of  the  men  whose  good  will 
could  be  won  only  in  honourable  fashion.  Spaniards 
and  Cubans,  Christian  Filipinos  and  Moros,  Catholic 
ecclesiastics  and  Protestant  missionaries — hi  each  case 
the  great  majority  of  those  whose  opinion  was  best 
worth  having — grew  to  regard  General  Wood  as  their 
special  champion  and  ablest  friend,  as  the  man  who 
more  than  any  others  understood  and  sympathized 
with  their  peculiar  needs  and  was  anxious  and  able  to 
render  them  the  help  they  most  needed.  In  Cuba  he 
acted  practically  as  both  civil  and  military  head;  and 
after  he  had  been  some  time  in  the  Philippines,  very 
earnest  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  by  many  of  the 
best  people  in  the  Islands  to  have  a  similar  position 
there  created  for  him,  so  that  he  could  repeat  what 
he  had  done  in  Cuba.  It  was  neither  necessary  nor 
desirable  that  this  position  should  be  created;  but  the 
widely  expressed  desire  that  it  should  be  created  was 
significant  of  the  faith  in  the  man. 

His  administration  was  as  signally  successful  in  the 
Moro  country  as  in  Cuba.  In  each  case  alike  it  brought 
in  its  train  peace,  an  increase  in  material  prosperity, 
and  a  rigid  adherence  to  honesty  as  the  only  policy 
tolerated  among  officials.  His  opportunity  for  military 
service  has  not  been  great,  either  in  the  Philippines  or 
while  he  was  the  Governor  of  Cuba.  Still,  on  several 
occasions  he  was  obliged  to  carry  on  operations  against 


TJie  Rescuer  of  Santiago  59> 

hostile  tribes  of  Moros,  and  in  each  case  he  did  his  work 
with  skill,  energy,  and  efficiency ;  and,  once  he  was  doner 
he  showed  as  much  humanity  in  dealing  with  the  van 
quished  as  he  had  shown  capacity  to  vanquish  them. 
In  our  country  there  are  some  kinds  of  success  which 
receive  an  altogether  disproportionate  financial  reward; 
but  in  no  other  country  is  the  financial  reward  so  small 
for  the  kind  of  service  done  by  Leonard  Wood  and  by 
the  other  men  whose  names  I  have  given  above.  Gen 
eral  Wood  is  an  army  officer  with  nothing  but  an  army 
officer's  pay,  and  we  accept  it  as  a  matter  of  course  that 
he  should  have  received  practically  no  pecuniary  re 
ward  for  those  services  which  he  rendered  in  positions 
not  such  as  an  army  officer  usually  occupies.  There 
is  not  another  big  country  in  the  world  where  he  would 
not  have  received  a  substantial  reward  such  as  here 
no  one  even  thinks  of  his  receiving.  Yet,  after  all, 
the  reward  for  which  he  most  cares  is  the  opportunity 
to  render  service,  and  this  opportunity  has  been  given 
him  once  and  again.  He  now  stands  as  Chief-of-Staff 
of  the  American  Army,  the  army  in  which  he  was  serv 
ing  in  a  subordinate  position  as  surgeon  thirteen  years 
ago.  His  rise  has  been  astonishing,  and  it  has  been  due 
purely  to  his  own  striking  qualifications  and  striking 
achievements.  Again  and  again  he  has  rendered  great 
service  to  the  American  people;  and  he  will  continue 
to  render  such  service  in  the  position  he  now  holds. 

On  July  20th,  three  days  after  the  Americans  had 
entered  the  city  of  Santiago,  General  Wood  was 
summoned  by  General  Shafter  in  command  of 
the  American  forces,  and  ordered  to  take  command 


60  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

of  the  city.  This  was  a  turning  point  in  General 
Wood's  career.  For  twelve  years  he  had  served 
as  army  surgeon  and  line  officer.  For  the  next 
ten  years  he  was  to  combine  the  duties  of  a  general 
officer  and  military  governor.  He  was  plunged 
into  the  most  difficult  of  positions  where  he  had  to 
serve  without  any  previous  training  as  government 
executive,  bring  order  out  of  disorder,  and  create  a 
government  as  he  went  along. 

It  is  difficult  at  this  time  to  visualize  the  handi 
cap  and  the  trials  which  beset  General  Wood 
when  he  became  Military  Governor  of  Santiago 
de  Cuba.  He  was  just  thirty -seven  years  old. 
A  few  months  before  he  had  been  living  the  pleas 
ant  and  orderly  life  of  any  army  surgeon  in  Wash 
ington  with  the  most  distinguished  patients  in  the 
country.  His  clients  had  been  President  McKin- 
ley,  Mrs.  McKinley,  and  army  officers  of  high 
rank  and  their  families.  But  he  had  no  more 
experience  as  a  statesman  than  he  had  as  an 
aviator.  Outside  of  his  interest  as  a  good  citizen 
in  good  government  he  knew  little  of  govern 
mental  affairs. 

"I  had  never  held  any  office  of  any  sort,"  said 
General  Wood.  "The  army  offered  no  training 
for  the  duties  which  might  devolve  on  a  military- 
governor,  but  I  had  read  a  whole  lot  of  British 
colonial  history,  so  I  was  not  wholly  without 


The  Rescuer  of  Santiago  61 

guidance.  I  met  each  problem  that  came  up  and 
tried  to  solve  it  to  the  best  of  my  ability." 

General  Shafter  selected  Leonard  Wood  because 
he  had  made  good  in  the  Southwest,  because 
President  McKinley  trusted  him,  because  he  had 
shown  great  organizing  and  executive  ability  in  the 
late  campaign,  because  he  had  always  throughout 
his  career  shown  a  passion  for  unselfish,  patriotic 
service,  and  finally,  because  he  was  a  doctor,  and 
Cuba  was  mighty  sick. 

When  General  Wood  entered  on  his  duties, 
Santiago  was  a  city  of  a  thousand  desperate  needs. 
Here  was  a  community  of  50,000  inhabitants,  more 
than  15,000  of  whom  were  sick.  It  had  just  gone 
through  a  siege,  so  that  most  of  the  population  was 
starving.  In  addition  to  the  sick  among  the  civil 
population  there  were  2,000  Spanish  soldiers 
bedridden  within  the  city,  and  5,000  American 
troops  suffering  from  malarial  fevers. 

In  an  orderly  community  with  its  governmental 
machinery  intact  and  its  supply  of  life  necessities 
normal,  an  epidemic  which  prostrated  one  fourth 
of  the  population  would  result  in  a  panic  and  wild 
appeals  for  outside  help.  But  in  addition  to  being 
sick,  Santiago  was  starving.  Its  food  supply  had 
disappeared  into  the  cellars  of  hoarders  and  ware 
houses  of  profiteers.  During  the  siege  its  sources 
of  supply  had  been  cut  off. 


62  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Under  Spanish  rule  the  city  had  been  notorious 
for  its  uncleanliness.  "You  could  smell  it  ten 
miles  at  sea,"  said  an  old  sea  captain  to  an  Amer 
ican  officer  of  General  Wood's  staff,  and  now  it 
was  worse  than  ever. 

The  water  supply  was  polluted,  inadequate  in 
volume,  a  sure  breeder  of  typhoid,  from  which  the 
city  had  never  been  free  throughout  its  history. 
The  swamps  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Santiago 
breathed  a  miasma  of  malaria  from  which  no 
foreigner  was  immune. 

An  experienced  organizer  and  executive,  invested 
with  dictatorial  powers  and  having  under  his 
command  a  trained  staff  of  medical  officers  and 
sanitation  experts,  an  efficient  army  to  maintain 
order  and  carry  out  his  instructions,  and  plenty 
of  food  and  medical  supplies,  might  have  found  it 
a  hard  but  not  an  impossible  task  to  clean  up 
Santiago,  restore  the  community  to  health,  and 
establish  order.  But  General  Wood  had  no  such 
equipment.  He  himself  was  a  raw  recruit  as  a 
municipal  officer.  He  was  short  of  doctors,  and 
drugs  had  to  be  transported  from  the  United 
States.  When  it  came  to  the  army,  his  handicap 
was  rendered  even  more  complex.  The  army  was 
sick.  At  first  General  Wood's  assignment  to 
Santiago  seemed  quite  hopeless. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  less  than  one  per 


The  Rescuer  of  Santiago  63 

cent,  of  the  American  troops  stationed  in  and 
around  Santiago  escaped  malaria.  It  was  this 
disease  which  raised  the  greatest  havoc  with  our 
troops.  The  mortality  was  not  so  high,  but  a 
soldier  subject  to  malaria  might  as  well  be  dead 
as  alive,  so  far  as  his  military  usefulness  is  con 
cerned,  the  fever  being  recurrent.  A  man  would 
be  very  sick  for  a  few  days,  then  he  would  partially 
recover  and  be  able  to  go  on  duty;  then  he  would 
be  struck  down  again.  In  the  course  of  these 
attacks  the  strength  of  the  strongest  and  toughest 
trooper  would  be  sapped  so  that  he  had  little  re 
serve  vitality  with  which  to  fight  off  other  ills. 

The  pitiable  condition  of  our  troops  had  been 
rendered  worse  by  a  curious  incident  which  to-day, 
in  view  of  the  rigid  censorship  that  was  main 
tained  on  all  military  information  during  the  great 
war,  seems  almost  grotesque.  Alarmed  at  the 
high  percentage  of  sickness  among  the  troops, 
the  general  officers  of  the  army  in  Cuba  addressed 
a  "Round  Robin"  to  Major-General  Shafter 
stating  that  "the  army  must  be  moved  at  once  or 
it  will  perish."  Accompanying  the  "Round 
Robin"  was  a  succinct  statement  from  the  chief 
medical  officers  attesting  to  the  danger  from  ma 
laria  and  other  tropical  diseases. 

It  has  often  been  said  that  war  correspondents 
ran  the  Spanish- American  War.  In  this  particular 


64  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

case  Washington  read  the  details  of  the  "Round 
Robin"  in  the  newspapers  before  receiving  any 
official  statement  from  the  commanding  officer. 
General  Shafter,  on  receiving  a  curt  letter  from 
Secretary  of  War  Alger  criticizing  the  "Round 
Robin,"  explained  that  it  had  been  given  to  the 
newspapermen  before  he  saw  it.  The  effect  of  the 
incident  was  to  create  what  might  be  called  a  near 
panic  at  home  and  a  bitter  unrest  among  the 
soldiers  in  Cuba,  adding  materially  to  the  labours 
of  every  American  officer  in  the  island  and  the 
ill-temper  of  the  authorities  in  Washington. 

Secretary  Alger  in  his  history  of  the  Spanish- 
American  War  denies  that  the  War  Department 
was  influenced  in  the  least  by  the  "Round  Robin." 
Nevertheless,  the  veterans  of  the  Santiago  cam 
paign,  with  the  exception  of  those  infected  with  the 
yellow  fever  or  those  showing  symptoms  of  infec 
tion,  were  removed  late  in  August,  1899,  to  rest 
billets  at  Montauk  Point,  Long  Island.  They  were 
replaced  by  green  troops  who  arrived  at  the  height 
of  the  unhealthful  season,  causing  fresh  anxiety  to 
all  the  commanding  officers. 

At  least  some  of  the  older  troops  had  become 
acclimated  and  used  to  conditions  in  the  island, 
and  no  doubt  General  Wood's  task  of  saving  Santi 
ago  from  starvation  and  disease  would  have  been 
lightened  if  these  veterans  had  been  retained.  The 


The  Rescuer  of  Santiago  65 

Fifth  Army  Corps  was  suffering  principally  from 
the  effects  of  the  Santiago  campaign.  The  men 
had  been  wallowing  in  mud  and  water  in  the  yel 
low  fever  country  for  weeks,  and  had,  of  course, 
been  thoroughly  infected  with  malaria.  It  was 
thought  that  the  new  troops,  recruited  mostly 
from  the  Southern  states  and  supposed  to  be 
immune  from  malaria,  would  fare  better  with  im 
proved  tentage  and  general  living  conditions.  But 
as  General  Wood  later  testified  before  the  War 
Investigation  Committee,  the  identical  troubles 
suffered  by  the  troops  during  the  campaign  ap 
peared  among  the  new  and  supposedly  immune 
army  living  in  tents  with  floors,  drinking  boiled 
water,  and  rigidly  maintaining  all  the  sanitary 
precautions  prescribed  by  the  army  doctors. 

General  Wood  began  his  labours  in  Santiago  with 
sick  troops,  veterans  of  a  few  weeks  on  the  island, 
and  he  continued  his  work  with  sick  green  troops. 
As  he  told  the  War  Investigation  Committee, 
"All  the  'immune'  regiments  serving  in  my  de 
partment  since  the  war  have  been  at  one  time  or 
another  unfit  for  service.  I  have  had  all  the 
officers  of  my  staff  repeatedly  too  sick  for  duty." 

In  spite  of  these  handicaps,  the  young  New 
England  army  doctor  stuck  to  his  job.  Although 
in  perfect  physical  condition  when  he  landed  in 
Cuba,  hardened  and  toughened  by  a  decade  of 


66  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Indian  fighting  and  life  in  the  open,  General  Wood 
did  not  escape  malaria  or  yellow  fever.  In  the 
midst  of  his  work  in  Santiago  he  was  taken  ill 
with  the  latter  disease,  which  had  in  those  days  a 
record  of  killing  four  out  of  five  victims,  but  Gen 
eral  Wood  was  the  fifth.  Later,  when  he  was 
Governor  of  the  island,  he  contracted  typhoid 
fever  while  inspecting  the  hospitals  of  Havana,  but 
again  his  iron  constitution  saved  him. 

Another  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  new  military 
governor  was  his  limited  knowledge  of  the  Spanish 
race  and  language.  There  were  available  only  a 
few  Americans  who  could  speak  Spanish  well  and 
a  still  fewer  number  of  Cubans  who  could  speak 
English.  "I  had  picked  up  a  smattering  of 
Spanish  while  serving  down  on  the  Mexican  bor 
der,"  he  said,  "but  I  required  the  services  of  an 
interpreter  on  all  official  business." 

Perhaps  the  worst  barrier  of  all  was  the  profound 
distrust  on  the  part  of  the  Cuban  people  of  all 
foreigners,  a  distrust  instilled  for  generations  into 
their  minds  by  Spain's  representatives  in  the 
island.  The  laws  of  the  land,  fundamentally 
sound,  had  been  so  administered  as  to  deprive  the 
average  Cuban  of  all  respect  for  law  and  authority. 
He  knew  nothing  of  honest  government  or  honest 
administration.  In  consequence,  his  civic  training 
had  consisted  of  learning  how  to  evade  the  law  and 


The  Rescuer  of  Santiago  67 

cheat  officials.  Neither  his  property  nor  that  of 
any  of  his  ancestors,  so  far  as  he  knew,  had  ever 
been  safe  from  seizure.  He  and  his  ancestors 
had  always  lived  in  fear  of  arrest  and  persecution 
by  officials  whose  authority  was  absolute,  and  most 
of  whom  seemed  to  be  swayed  by  the  old  Spanish 
caste  prejudice  against  the  colonial  born-and-bred 
subjects  of  Spain. 

General  Wood  could  hardly  expect  much  civic 
cooperation  from  such  people.  Along  with  all 
the  rest  of  the  work  piled  on  him  he  had  to  win 
the  confidence  of  the  natives,  demonstrate  to  them 
that  although  he  was  an  official,  he  was  an  honest 
man  from  whom  they  did  not  have  to  hide  what 
little  property  they  owned,  and  that  he  looked 
upon  them  as  free  men  and  women,  endowed  with 
personal  rights  which  he  and  all  good  Americans 
held  sacred. 

When  he  rode  into  Santiago,  Wood  encountered 
dead  bodies  of  men  and  of  animals  lying  in  the 
streets.  Every  thoroughfare  was  piled  with  dirt 
and  broken  furniture  and  other  household  uten 
sils.  The  city  had  no  sewer  system,  and  here 
and  there  the  open  drains  had  been  blocked  by  the 
corpse  of  a  human  being  or  an  animal.  Over  the 
city  hovered  a  multitude  of  vultures,  and  it  was 
no  uncommon  sight  to  see  one  of  these  carrion 
birds  sweep  down  to  feed  on  carcasses.  Scores 


68  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

of  houses  were  deserted  except  for  the  dead  bodies 
they  contained.  For  days  there  had  been  no 
attempt  made  by  the  people  to  bury  their  dead. 
The  living  were  too  sick,  too  demoralized  by 
the  long  and  savage  struggle  of  the  revolution 
culminating  in  the  siege,  to  attend  to  such  ele 
mental  duties.  Over  this  dead  and  dying  city 
there  hung  the  paralyzing  fear  that  at  any  moment 
its  suffering  might  be  intensified  by  the  recurrent 
epidemics  of  yellow  fever,  small-pox,  or  the  bu 
bonic  plague.  Never  did  Hercules  himself  essay 
a  worse  cleaning  job  than  that  which  lay  before 
the  American  soldier-doctor. 

The  first  tasks  before  General  Wood  were  to  feed 
the  population  and  bury  the  dead.  During  the 
siege  thousands  of  women,  children,  and  other 
non-combatants  had  been  permitted  to  leave  the 
city  and  pass  through  the  American  lines  to  El 
Caney  where  they  were  given  assistance  by  the 
American  troops  and  the  Red  Cross  in  securing 
food  and  shelter.  Now  these  refugees  were  strag 
gling  back  into  the  city,  having  utterly  no  means 
of  subsistence. 

There  were  so  many  dead  that  it  was  found 
impracticable  to  bury  them.  The  bodies  were  col 
lected  in  lots  of  fifty  to  a  hundred,  soaked  in 
petroleum,  and  burned  outside  the  city  limits. 
It  was  horrible  work,  and  men  had  to  be  forced  to 


The  Rescuer  of  Santiago  69 

perform  it.  But  there  were  many  idle  and  desti 
tute  men  in  Santiago,  and  all  of  them  possessed 
the  natural  desire  to  fill  their  hungry  stomachs 
and  earn  a  little  money,  if  they  were  not  too  sick 
to  eat  and  work.  These  were  drafted  to  clean  up 
the  city  under  the  direction  of  American  troops. 
Sometimes  they  had  to  be  driven  by  threats  into 
houses  to  collect  the  bodies. 

Wood's  men  worked  night  and  day  in  the  streets 
collecting  the  dead  animals,  cleaning  away  the 
filth  that  had  accumulated  there  for  months,  and 
carting  everything  out  beyond  the  city  limits  to 
be  soaked  in  oil  and  burned.  General  Wood  and 
his  army  had  more  or  less  literally  come  into 
the  city  armed  with  shovels,  scrub  brushes,  and 
disinfectants.  Houses  and  streets  and  vaults  were 
cleansed  by  native  labour  directed  by  short- 
tempered  American  soldiers  who  were  full  of 
quinine  and  uncomplimentary  remarks  about 
army  life  in  Cuba. 

We  may  recall  in  this  connection  that  architec 
turally  most  Latin-American  cities  are  unlike  our 
cities.  Our  yards  surround  our  houses.  In  San 
tiago  the  houses  surrounded  the  yards.  What  each 
courtyard  contained  was  the  private  affair  of  the 
owner,  and  its  state  of  sanitation  depended  en 
tirely  on  his  standard  of  cleanliness.  The  Amer 
icans  found  these  private  courtyards  depositories 


70  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

of  garbage;  and  into  many  of  these  premises  the 
Americans  had  to  force  their  way. 

There  was  this  consoling  aspect  to  the  whole 
discouraging  business:  the  people  were  to  a  cer 
tain  extent  inured  to  their  misery.  They  were 
used  to  dirt,  used  to  hunger,  used  to  disease.  The 
natives  were  a  race  of  tough  survivors. 

The  cleansing  process  was  followed  by  liberal 
applications  of  corrosive  sublimate  solution.  Even 
the  streets  were  sprinkled  with  disinfectants.  In 
side  of  four  months  Santiago  was  probably  the 
cleanest  city  in  tropical  America.  It  smelled  to 
heaven  of  disinfectants,  but  it  was  clean. 

The  problem  of  supplying  food  for  the  popula 
tion  appeared  at  first  impossible  of  solution.  There 
was  little  or  no  food  in  sight  in  Santiago  when  the 
Americans  entered  on  July  17th.  Within  a  few 
days  the  Americans  had  disclosed  hoards  of  provi 
sions  here  and  there.  Moreover,  the  Spanish  army, 
which  had  now  surrendered,  had  stocked  up  large 
quantities  for  rations.  This  food  was  available 
for  distribution  among  the  civilian  population 
while  the  regular  channels  of  trade  communication 
were  being  opened.  The  people  of  Santiago  suf 
fered  little  from  hunger  after  the  Americans  took 
charge. 

Henry  Harrison  Lewis,  in  an  article  published 
in  McClure's  Magazine  when  General  Wood  was  in 


The  Rescuer  of  Santiago  71 

command  at  Santiago,  tells  an  incident  which  in 
these  days  of  high  prices  is  timely  and  which  dur 
ing  the  palmiest  days  of  the  food  profiteers  who 
flourished  in  this  country  throughout  the  great 
war,  in  spite  of  Federal  regulations,  would  have 
been  timelier  still.  General  Wood  knew  food 
profiteers  in  Santiago  twenty-one  years  ago,  and 
in  spite  of  his  inexperience  in  dealing  with  such 
persons,  immediately  hit  upon  an  effective  plan 
to  regulate  prices.  His  officers  reported  to  him 
that  merchants  in  Santiago  had  considerable 
quantities  of  meat  and  other  food,  but  that  the 
prices  were  so  high  that  the  food  was  beyond  the 
reach  of  but  few  persons.  He  sent  at  once  for  the 
principal  butchers  of  the  city. 

"How  much  do  you  charge  for  meat?"  Wood 
asked  the  butchers. 

"Ninety  cents  a  pound,  Seiior." 

"What  does  it  cost  you?" 

There  was  hesitation  and  shuffling  of  feet;  then 
one  of  the  men  said  in  a  whining  voice: 

"Meat  is  very  dear,  your  Excellency." 

"How  much  a  pound?" 

"Fifteen  cents,  your  Excellency;  but  we  have 
lost  much  money  during  the  war  and " 

"So  have  your  customers.  Now  meat  will 
be  sold  at  twenty-five  cents  a  pound,  and  not  one 
cent  more.  Do  you  understand?" 


72  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Wood  then  turned  to  the  Cuban  Aldermen  who 
were  present  and  charged  them  with  looking  after 
the  enforcement  of  the  order  on  pain  of  being 
expelled  from  office.  Thereafter  meat  was  sold 
in  the  markets  at  twenty-five  cents.  The  same 
simple  plan  was  evolved  for  all  other  kinds  of  sup 
plies.  It  took  Leonard  Wood  only  a  few  minutes 
to  solve  the  high  cost  of  living  problem  in  San 
tiago.  He  used  no  more  arbitrary  methods  than 
were  proposed  and  attempted  by  the  allied  coun 
tries  during  the  late  war.  But  he  enforced  his 
decree  to  the  letter  despite  the  opposition  which 
some  of  his  acts  aroused.  There  was  plenty  of 
criticism,  for  Wood  had  unmuzzled  the  press  of 
Santiago  for  the  first  time  in  Cuban  history.  Wood 
has  never  been  a  believer  in  censorship. 

To  one  who  has  read  the  official  records  of  the 
occupation  of  Cuba  it  seems  that  Wood  started 
a  hundred  different  projects  during  his  first  few 
weeks  as  Military  Governor.  It  is  remarkable 
that  he  was  able  to  carry  through  within  the  short 
period  allotted  more  than  a  few  of  these  ventures. 
But  all  his  plans  for  the  betterment  of  the  city  and 
province  seemed  to  develop  in  a  rapid  yet  orderly 
fashion.  It  is  true  that  he  was  given  a  free  hand. 
Nevertheless,  no  one  but  a  man  of  great  executive 
and  organizing  ability  could  have  guided  the  re 
habilitation  work  and  pushed  it  to  a  completion. 


The  Rescuer  of  Santiago  73 

He  launched  an  engineering  project  for  draining 
the  malarial  swamps  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
city;  increased  the  city's  water  supply;  paved 
streets  and  built  roads;  established  municipal 
governments  throughout  the  province;  organized 
pack-train  service  into  the  interior;  recruited  and 
trained  Cuban  rural  guards  to  suppress  brigandage 
and  maintain  order;  reestablished  the  courts,  ap 
pointing  native  judges  and  prosecutors;  founded 
public  schools;  and  by  opening  the  customs  houses, 
collecting  duty,  and  improvising  means  for  local 
taxation,  paid  for  all  these  improvements.  He 
was  already  teaching  a  part  of  Cuba  to  stand  on 
its  own  feet. 

This  reconstruction  programme  was  begun  by 
Wood  as  soon  as  the  emergency  work  of  cleaning 
the  city,  disposing  of  the  bodies  of  the  dead,  and 
providing  for  the  food  supplies  had  been  ac 
complished.  In  a  general  way  he  followed  the 
plan  of  submitting  his  various  schemes  for  the 
civic  betterment  to  the  native  officials  and  winning 
their  consent  and  cooperation  in  whatever  he 
undertook. 

There  were  no  municipal  officials  to  consult. 
When  he  took  office  Wood  found  himself  a  ruler 
over  the  ruins  of  a  civilization.  The  civilization 
which  grand  old  Spain  had  planted  in  the  island 
had  been  crumbling  for  generations  under  the 


74  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

regime  of  the  Spanish  bureaucrats  and  Military 
Governors  who,  by  their  incompetence  and  cor 
ruption,  had  played  the  roles  of  traitors  to  their 
native  land  which  had  honoured  them  with  posi 
tions  of  trust  and  dignity. 

The  American  occupation  of  Cuba  began  with 
the  occupation  of  Santiago  province.  Prior  to  the 
transfer  of  the  island  to  the  United  States  on 
January  1,  1899,  the  territory  occupied  by  the 
United  States  military  forces  was  limited  to  this 
province  and  some  adjacent  territory.  Leonard 
Wood's  jurisdiction,  which  at  first  covered  only 
the  city  of  Santiago,  was  soon  extended  to 
include  all  of  this  territory  occupied  by  the 
Americans  up  to  the  time  of  the  Peace  Conference 
of  Paris. 

All  the  municipalities  in  Santiago  province 
were  practically  in  the  same  mess  as  the  city  of 
Santiago;  all  the  towns  and  cities  had  to  be  cleaned 
out,  and  strict  sanitary  regulations  imposed. 
There  was  no  government  worthy  of  the  name 
functioning  in  any  of  these  communities. 

One  of  General  Wood's  first  tasks,  therefore, 
was  to  build  up  a  semblance  of  civil  government 
in  the  various  communities.  There  was  no  gen 
eral  election  law,  as  we  understand  it,  on  the  Cuban 
statute  books;  so  Wood  improvised  a  scheme  for 
filling  the  necessary  public  offices,  whereby  the 


The  Rescuer  of  Santiago  75 

Cubans  themselves  would  have  the  principal  voice 
in  choosing  their  leaders. 

He  would  summon  fifty  or  sixty  leading  men  of 
a  community,  representing  all  classes,  and  ask 
them  to  submit  a  list  of  men  whom  they  considered 
competent  and  honest  enough  to  serve  as  munici 
pal  officers.  From  this  list  he  would  make  his 
appointments.  He  would  then  lay  down  his  in 
structions  to  the  new  officials,  charge  them  with 
maintaining  law  and  order  and  enforcing  the 
sanitary  regulations  promulgated  by  the  Amer 
icans.  He  would  tell  them  that  they  had  the 
backing  of  the  American  army  in  discharging  their 
duties,  and  he  never  failed  to  make  it  plain  that 
they  would  have  to  attend  to  business  and  serve 
their  constituents  to  the  best  of  their  ability,  or 
they  would  find  themselves  without  jobs. 

General  Wood  established  courts  throughout  the 
province,  appointing  judges  and  prosecutors.  He 
was  gradually  building  up  a  civilized  state  on  the 
ruins  of  the  old  Spanish  crown  colony.  The 
hospitals  had  to  be  renovated,  and  the  jails  cleaned 
out,  and  human  regulations  substituted  for  the  ir 
regular  prison  rule  which  prevailed. 

Santiago's  prisons  were  indescribable.  They 
were  filled  with  political  prisoners  and  other  of 
fenders  whose  condition  was  pitiable  in  the  ex 
treme.  Investigation  of  charges  against  prisoners 


76  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

revealed  that  many  of  them  had  been  thrown  into 
jail  by  the  Spanish  authorities  without  any  valid 
reason.  For  instance,  General  Wood  found  one 
man  in  a  Santiago  prison  who  had  been  held  there 
for  ten  years.  There  was  no  charge  against  him 
and  the  prison  officials  explained  that  he  was 
simply  being  held  "at  the  will  of  the  Governor 
General."  Further  inquiry  revealed  that  a  former 
Spanish  Governor  General  had  ordered  the  man 
arrested  for  some  trivial  offence,  the  exact  nature 
of  which  was  never  discovered.  He  had  never 
been  tried,  and  the  official  who  had  ordered  his 
arrest  had  left  for  Spain  many  years  ago.  Scores 
of  illegally  held  prisoners  were  released  and  Gen 
eral  Wood  issued  strict  orders  that  every  person 
arrested  must  be  given  trial  within  twenty-four 
hours. 

Many  years  before  the  Americans  came  to  free 
Cuba  a  Spanish  municipal  architect  had  con 
ceived  a  plan  for  a  beautiful  boulevard  along  the 
water  front  in  Santiago.  The  work  had  been 
practically  finished  except  for  the  laying  of  a 
permanent  pavement.  The  boulevard  was  now 
rutted  and  in  an  ill  state  of  repair,  as  were  most 
of  the  thoroughfares  in  the  city.  General  WTood 
submitted  to  the  civil  authorities  of  Santiago  the 
necessity  for  paved  streets,  and  with  their  consent 
started  an  ambitious  programme  of  street  im- 


The  Rescuer  of  Santiago  77 

provements  for  which  native  labour  was  employed. 
The  marine  boulevard  was  transformed  into  an 
avenue  of  beauty  of  which  any  city  might  have 
been  proud.  Being  a  military  man  with  a  most 
wholesome  respect  for  good  roads,  and  realizing, 
moreover,  the  vital  necessity  for  them  in  a  country 
depending  entirely  on  agriculture,  General  Wood 
projected  a  system  of  rural  highway  building.  The 
Spanish  had  made  some  efforts  at  road  building 
in  the  vicinity  of  Santiago.  What  astonished 
the  Cubans  most  of  all  was  that  under  the  Amer 
ican  Military  Governor  roads  could  be  built  superior 
to  those  built  by  the  Spanish  and  for  about  half 
the  price. 

Many  an  executive  placed  in  Wood's  position 
might  have  sent  his  own  troops  into  the  rural 
districts  to  wipe  out  or  capture  the  brigands  who 
flourished  there,  making  it  virtually  impossible 
for  people  to  resume  their  peaceful  pursuits  of 
agriculture.  Now  some  of  these  outlaws  had  at 
some  time  fought  for  Cuba,  and  to  send  American 
soldiers  to  fight  them  might  have  precipitated 
serious  trouble.  Besides,  American  soldiers  were 
not  fit  for  such  duty.  They  would  have  suc 
cumbed  to  the  tropical  fevers  from  which  the 
Cuban  bandits  were  immune.  General  Wood 
recognized  these  facts  and  organized  the  rural 
guards  of  Cubans,  drilled  and  armed  them,  and 


78  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

sent  them  forth  to  fight  their  own  outlaws.  "Let 
the  Cubans  kill  their  own  rats,"  said  the  General. 
This  proved  both  efficacious  and  satisfactory. 

There  was  no  public  school  system  in  Cuba, 
instruction  being  left  to  private  institutions. 
Wood  devoutly  believed  then,  as  he  still  does,  that 
public  education  is  the  cornerstone  of  every  free 
state.  After  the  cities  had  been  cleaned  up,  the 
epidemics  checked,  and  the  Spanish  troops,  pris 
oners  of  war,  had  been  sent  home,  he  turned  his 
attention  to  the  schools.  When  he  took  command 
of  all  of  Cuba,  Wood  had  opened  nearly  two  hun 
dred  schools  in  Santiago  province  in  charge  of 
Cuban  teachers,  the  expenses  being  paid  from 
public  revenue. 

The  methods  used  in  effecting  this  rehabilita 
tion  did  not  savour  much  of  the  military  dictator 
as  the  following  example  shows.  Throughout 
its  history  Santiago  had  never  had  an  adequate 
water  supply  and  now  it  was  about  one  fourth 
of  what  the  city  daily  required.  The  water  came 
from  a  dam  up  in  the  hills  which  was  always  break 
ing.  The  water  was  none  too  good  in  quality,  and 
Santiago  was  suffering  from  typhoid.  Wood, 
being  invested  with  the  powers  of  a  dictator,  could 
have  ordered  another  dam  built  at  the  expense  of 
the  city.  Instead  of  so  doing,  he  called  a  meeting 
of  the  civil  officials,  explained  to  them  the  vital 


Tfie  Rescuer  of  Santiago  79 

need  for  an  increased  and  purer  water  supply, 
showed  them  blueprints  of  a  new  dam  prepared 
by  American  engineers,  and  asked  their  approval 
for  raising  $100,000  by  a  bond  issue  to  pay  for  the 
work.  The  city  fathers,  by  a  vote,  authorized  the 
bond  issue  and  the  dam  was  built. 

It  was  in  the  matter  of  issuing  and  enforcing 
health  decrees  that  Wood  exercised  all  the  power 
of  his  office.  He  decreed  that  all  cases  of  sick 
ness  and  death  must  be  immediately  reported  to 
the  Military  Government.  Violation  of  this 
edict  meant  jail  and  fine.  As  a  result  the  death 
rate  in  Santiago  fell  in  four  months  from  two  hun 
dred  per  day  to  ten  per  day. 

Having  made  a  fair  start  toward  restoring  an 
orderly  government,  General  Wood  promulgated 
a  Bill  of  Rights  giving  the  residents  of  Santiago 
the  right  to  carry  arms,  hold  public  meetings,  and 
do  virtually  all  things  permitted  to  people  under  a 
free  and  democratic  government. 

The  captain  of  an  army  transport  during  the 
Spanish-American  War  gave  the  following  account 
of  General  Wood's  progress  in  cleaning  up  San 
tiago: 

"When  we  first  sailed  into  Santiago  Harbour, 
late  in  July  or  early  in  August,  '98,  there  were 
thousands  and  thousands  of  buzzards  hovering 
over  the  city  and  the  water.  It  seemed  to  me  that 


80  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

the  sky  was  full  of  them.  In  the  summer  of  1899 
there  was  quite  a  number  of  them  soaring  over  the 
town.  Old  yellow  jack  had  broken  out  again,  and 
things  looked  rather  discouraging  for  General 
Wood  and  his  men. 

"But  in  the  following  summer  of  1900  we  sailed 
into  the  harbour  one  afternoon,  and  I  recall  that 
one  of  my  officers  remarked:  'Well,  sir,  there  is 
only  one  of  them  left,'  and  I  saw  where  he  pointed 
his  finger — a  lone  buzzard  floating  high  overhead. 
He  certainly  looked  like  a  very  lonesome  creature 
up  there." 

It  took  General  Wood  only  a  few  weeks  to  de 
stroy  the  buzzards'  business,  but  it  took  two  years 
of  continuous  bad  business  to  drive  them  off. 

Late  in  1899,  General  WTood  made  a  brief  visit 
to  the  United  States,  receiving  magnificent  ova 
tions  wherever  he  went.  In  recognition  of  his 
services  in  Santiago,  Harvard  University,  his 
Alma  Mater,  bestowed  on  him  an  LL.D.  degree. 

"Leonard  Wood,  Harvard  Doctor  of  Medicine, 
army  surgeon,  single-minded  soldier,  lifesaver, 
restorer  of  a  province,"  was  President  Charles  Wr. 
Eliot's  eloquent  and  brief  eulogy  as  he  conferred 
the  academic  honour  on  General  Wood. 

Wood's  reward  from  his  government  was  a 
promotion  to  the  rank  of  Major-General  of  Volun 
teers. 


VI 

GOVERNOR  AND   BUSINESS   MANAGER  OF   CUBA 

GUIZOT  in  his  history  of  France  tells  an  in 
teresting  incident  in  the  course  of  the  visit  of  Peter 
the  Great  to  Paris.  The  young  monarch,  who  was 
at  that  time  opening  Russia's  "windows"  toward 
Europe,  demanded  shortly  after  his  arrival  in 
Paris  to  be  shown  the  statue  of  Richelieu. 

"One  of  his  first  visits,"  Guizot  writes,  "was 
to  the  church  of  the  Sorbonne;  when  he  caught 
sight  of  Richelieu's  monument,  he  ran  up  to  it, 
embraced  the  statue,  and  'Ah,  great  man,'  said 
he,  'if  thou  wert  still  alive,  I  would  give  thee  one 
half  of  my  kingdom  to  teach  me  to  govern  the 
other.'" 

It  was  a  safe  offer.  The  cardinal  statesman 
was  dead.  No  such  liberal  offers  are  made  to 
living  statesmen  whose  abilities  and  accomplish 
ments  are  measured  on  the  uncertain  and  varying 
scales  of  contemporary  judgment.  The  head  of  a 
great  business  corporation  may  offer  a  princely 
reward  for  the  services  of  a  little  commercial  Riche- 

81 


82  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

lieu,  but  rulers  and  nations  like  to  govern  or 
misgovern  themselves. 

No  matter  how  miserable  its  state,  no  nation 
would  appeal  to  a  foreign  government  expert  to 
come  in  and  govern  it  and  teach  it  how  to  live. 

However,  just  such  an  opportunity  came  to 
Leonard  Wood  when,  on  December  12,  1899,  he 
was  appointed  Governor-General  of  Cuba.  He 
had  made  good  as  Military  Governor  of  Santiago 
city  and  the  province  of  the  same  name.  His 
reward  was  the  governorship  of  the  whole  island. 

Of  course  Cuba  did  not  invite  him  to  come  and 
rule  and  teach  it  how  to  rule  itself.  If  the  people 
of  Cuba  had  been  allowed  to  have  their  own  way 
after  the  Spaniards  had  been  driven  out,  they 
would  no  doubt  have  escorted  the  Americans 
politely  to  their  ships,  thanked  them  for  their 
services,  and  then  the  various  factions  of  the 
island  would  have  continued  the  war  among  them 
selves. 

In  spite  of  the  conflict  which  raged  in  Washing 
ton  at  the  close  of  the  Spanish-American  War,  it 
was  clear  to  all  political  parties  that  we  owed  a 
duty  to  Cuba  beyond  that  of  freeing  the  island  from 
Spanish  rule.  Cuba  had  to  be  put  on  her  feet  and 
given  a  fair  start  as  an  independent  nation.  Gen 
eral  Wood  received  his  appointment  as  Governor- 
General  from  Elihu  Root,  who  had  succeeded 


Governor  of  Cuba  83 

Alger  as  Secretary  of  War.  If,  on  confirming  the 
appointment,  President  McKinley  had  been  re 
minded  of  Peter's  remark  before  the  statue  of 
Richelieu,  he  would  probably  have  said  that  he 
expected  Leonard  Wood  to  do  a  great  deal  better 
job  than  Richelieu  ever  could  have  done — and  that 
for  the  modest  salary  of  an  American  army  of 
ficer. 

A  few  weeks  before,  Wood  had  been  advanced 
to  the  rank  of  Major-General  of  Volunteers  pay 
ing  at  that  time  a  salary  of  $7,500  a  year  for  the 
first  five  years.  This  was  the  maximum  pay  he 
drew  from  his  government  while  acting  as  its  chief 
agent  hi  resuscitating  Cuba.  However,  the  em 
bryo  Cuban  government  showed  its  appreciation 
of  his  service  by  paying  him  a  like  sum,  making 
his  yearly  income  $15,000.  That  is  the  highest 
salary  he  has  ever  received  in  his  life.  Like  all 
army  pfficers  without  private  fortunes,  Wood  is 
ay  a  poor  man. 

During  his  Cuban  administration,  Wood's  ad 
ministrative  genius  being  recognized,  he  was 
offered  a  business  position  by  an  American  firm 
at  a  salary  of  $40,000  a  year.  The  hours  were 
short,  the  work  easy  and  pleasant,  his  future 
material  prosperity  and  that  of  his  family  as 
sured,  but  he  declined  it.  One  of  his  earliest 
ambitions  had  been  to  be  of  service  to  his  country. 


84  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

He  has  never  lost  that  incentive.  On  his  Cuban 
job,  Wood  laboured  from  twelve  to  twenty-four 
hours  a  day  and  the  labour  was  hard. 

When  he  appointed  Wood  Governor  of  Cuba, 
Root  knew  him  only  through  his  official  record. 
The  two  had  met  only  once.  This  was  at  a  dinner 
in  Washington  when  Wood  was  Military  Governor 
of  Santiago.  At  the  time  the  Senate  Military 
Affairs  Committee  was  sifting  the  charges  against 
Wood  in  1903,  Root  testified,  "He  (Wood)  was 
made  Governor-General  of  Cuba  on  my  recom 
mendation.  President  McKinley  did  not  suggest 
it." 

President  McKinley's  instructions  to  the  new 
Governor-General  were  brief  but  comprehensive. 
He  merely  told  General  Wood  "to  prepare  Cuba  as 
rapidly  as  possible  for  the  establishment  of  an 
independent  government,  republican  in  form,  and 
a  good  school  system."  It  was  a  big  order,  an 
assignment  which  any  statesman  of  the  time  might 
have  been  proud  to  take.  No  time  limit  could 
be  set,  but  as  the  whole  world  at  that  time  was 
watching  with  jealous  eyes  the  growing  power  and 
prestige  of  the  United  States;  as  the  statesmen  and 
diplomats  of  Europe,  knowing  what  a  rich  prize 
Cuba  was,  distrusted  our  professions,  firmly  be 
lieving  that  we  would  annex  the  island,  the  ad 
ministration  was  keenly  desirous  of  proving  as 


Governor  of  Cuba  85 

early  as  possible  its  good  faith  and  unselfishness. 
Hence  General  Wood's  time  for  performing  his 
great  task  was  limited.  He  was  his  own  pace 
maker,  but  he  was  required  to  set  himself  a  brisk 
Yankee  pace. 

Whenever  an  American  commonwealth  finds 
its  financial  condition  unfavourably  disturbed 
through  extravagance  of  public  officials,  ill-ad 
vised  legislation,  or  through  necessarily  heavy 
expenditure  of  funds  for  public  improvements, 
the  cry  goes  out  for  a  business  governor.  Many 
a  time  in  our  history  have  the  various  states  of  the 
Union  called  for  experienced  business  men  to  cor 
rect  the  errors  of  bungling  politicians  and  to  pull 
through  executive  measures  which  were  primarily 
business  ventures  on  a  large  scale. 

When  one  looks  back  upon  Cuba  at  the  end  of 
the  last  century  with  her  ruined  finances,  her 
imperative  need  for  big  public  improvements, 
her  equally  imperative  need  for  the  up-building 
of  her  agricultural,  industrial,  and  commercial  life, 
one  cannot  escape  the  conclusion  that  what  Cuba 
required  was  a  business  administration. 

Cuba  in  1899  was  first  of  all  a  business  job. 

And  Leonard  Wood,  the  Governor  of  the  island, 
had  no  business  experience. 

How  he  measured  up  as  business  administrator 
may  be  gathered  from  the  following  translation 


86  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

of  an  article  written  by  a  Cuban  which  recently 
appeared  in  a  Cuban  publication: 

Only  those  residing  in  Cuba  since  the  Spanish  regime 
can  appreciate  to  its  full  extent  the  marvellous  progress 
of  the  island  in  the  score  of  years  elapsed,  due  to  a  great 
extent  to  the  wisdom  of  General  Wood's  administra 
tion.  When  he  took  possession  of  the  government,  the 
Public  Treasury  was  in  a  very  lamentable  condition, 
as  was  also  all  public  service.  In  the  first  fiscal  year 
(of  the  American  occupation)  only  $16,151,908.12  was 
collected  in  customs  revenues.  The  improvements 
introduced  in  the  postal  service  brought  $235,854.26 
into  the  treasury.  The  secretary  of  the  new  govern 
ment  collected  in  the  same  fiscal  year  $899,256.54  and 
by  various  other  means  $977,774.65  was  taken  in,  mak 
ing  the  total  $18,264,793.57.  The  island  was  thus  be 
coming  normal  and  the  task  of  the  administration  some 
what  easier.  Great  sums  were  invested  in  public  works 
and  sanitation  in  the  cities.  The  people  began  to  feel 
satisfaction,  using  their  energies  in  consolidating  peace 
and  reestablishing  normal  conditions  in  the  various 
departments  of  the  national  government. 

In  the  fiscal  year  1900-01  the  collections  for  the  Pub 
lic  Treasury  amounted  to  $18,463,941.47,  and  from  the 
end  of  that  fiscal  year  to  May  20,  1902,  when  General 
Wood  and  the  Government  of  Intervention  withdrew, 
the  collections  amounted  to  $17,071,477.98,  that  is  to 
say,  a  total  of  $58,795,223.40  was  collected  during 
Wood's  administration.  His  administration  spent  a 
total  of  $58,160,053.11.  When  he  left  Cuba,  Wood 
handed  $635,170.29  to  the  Cuban  authorities. 

When  General  Leonard  Wood  took  charge  of  the 


Governor  of  Cuba  87 

government,  there  were  only  193  postoffices  in  condition 
of  rendering  service.  When  he  left,  there  were  366 
postoffices  giving  good  service. 

The  telegraph  service  was  very  poor  and  limited. 
With  the  help  of  the  army,  Wood  repaired  the  existing 
lines  and  established  new  ones  leaving  the  island  with 
77  stations  and  3,518  miles  of  lines. 

It  is  not  possible  to  enumerate  the  great  many  im 
provements  done  for  the  island  during  his  short  ad 
ministration,  and  it  is  very  difficult  to  appreciate  to-day 
the  hard  work  done  under  difficult  conditions  by  Gen 
eral  Wood  and  his  men  for  the  benefit  of  the  Cuban  peo 
ple  in  general.  One  word  should  be  said  here  in  praise 
of  the  Cuban  people,  and  it  is  that  they  unanimously 
gave  the  best  cooperation  and  help  to  the  Military  Gov 
ernor,  realizing  the  altruistic  and  patriotic  work  he 
was  doing  for  the  island.  Their  efforts  and  patriotic 
conduct  will  bring  to  them,  as  it  will  to  the  name  of 
General  Leonard  Wood  and  his  intelligent  assistants, 
the  admiration  and  respect  of  future  generations.  The 
Cubans  will  forever  remember  WTood's  labours  with 
love  and  praise. 


Just  as  the  history  of  Santiago  under  his  mili 
tary  governorship  was  the  story  of  Leonard  Wood 
during  that  period, so  it  maybe  said  that  the  history 
of  Cuba  from  December  12,  1899,  when  he  was  ap 
pointed  Governor-General  of  the  island,  till  May  20, 
1902,  when  the  Cuban  government  was  turned  over 
to  the  Cuban  people,  is  the  story  of  Wood.  Cuba 
was  his  work,  his  whole  life  throughout  this  time. 


88  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

What  he  accomplished  in  creating  order  out  of 
disorder,  building  up  the  commerce  of  the  country, 
rewriting  its  laws,  establishing  its  public  educa 
tional  system,  fighting  its  epidemics,  founding 
the  courts,  remodeling  the  institutions  of  cor 
rections  and  charities,  developing  public  works 
and  settling  innumerable  public  questions  which 
involved  exercise  of  statesmanship,  even  diplo 
macy,  constitutes  Wood's  biography  during  this 
time. 

Wood  was  less  than  forty  when  he  became  Gov 
ernor-General  of  Cuba.  He  was  one  of  the  rulers 
of  the  world  with  a  bigger  job  on  his  hands  than 
most  rulers  ever  encounter.  The  chief  executives 
of  nations  are  usually  kept  busy  enough  wrestling 
with  current  problems,  even  though  they  inherit 
from  their  predecessors  a  well-ordered  government. 
But  in  addition  to  taking  care  of  the  new  issues 
which  naturally  arise  in  any  country,  Wood  had  to 
tear  down  much  of  the  old  house  that  Spain  had 
erected,  and  build  up  a  new  structure.  Cuba's 
government  from  the  constitution  down  had  to  be 
created.  As  he  worked  to  reconstruct,  Wood  had 
to  forge  the  tools  with  which  he  laboured. 

It  is  futile  to  say  that  the  problem  before  Wood 
was  but  the  problem  of  Santiago  on  a  larger  scale. 
He  was,  of  course,  much  better  fitted  to  assume 
control  of  the  whole  island  because  of  his  executive 


Governor  of  Cuba  89 

experience  in  Santiago,  but  the  whole  Cuban  prob 
lem,  because  it  was  on  so  much  larger  scale,  de 
manded  different  methods. 

For  instance,  in  case  of  an  epidemic,  Wood  could 
stock  Santiago  city,  a  town  of  50,000  people, 
with  provisions,  then  put  it  under  lock  and  key, 
utterly  isolating  it  temporarily  from  the  outside 
world.  He  could  suspend  practically  all  business 
and  impose  the  most  drastic  sanitary  regulations. 
That  is  virtually  what  he  did  when  the  yellow- 
fever  epidemic  broke  forth  in  the  city  in  the  sum 
mer  of  1899. 

But  nothing  of  that  sort  could  be  attempted  in 
Havana,  the  capital  of  the  island,  with  a  popula 
tion  of  more  than  250,000.  Measures  wholly 
different  from  those  used  in  Santiago  province  had 
to  be  applied  to  correct  the  many  evils — inherit 
ances  of  Spanish  rule.  In  addition  Wood  now  had 
to  undertake  an  immense  amount  of  constructive 
labour  for  the  whole  country.  We  can  only  out 
line  the  notably  important  events  of  his  adminis 
tration. 

He  consulted  Chief  Justice  White  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  who  pronounced  the  Cuban 
laws  sound  but  the  judicial  procedure  faulty,  re 
quiring  many  changes  and  modifications.  This 
pronouncement  from  such  a  distinguished  author 
ity  became  Wood's  guide.  He  removed  judicial 


90  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

and  prosecuting  officers  who  were  found  to  be 
blameworthy  for  the  miscarriage  of  justice,  and 
appointed  a  commission  to  inquire  into  the  chief 
faults  in  legal  procedure.  The  iniquitous  fee 
system  for  judges  and  prosecuting  officers  was 
abolished,  and  these  court  officials  were  placed  on 
fixed  and  sufficient  salaries  determined  by  the  com 
mission.  For  the  first  time  in  Cuban  history 
salaries  to  public  officials  were  paid  regularly.  The 
incentive  to  graft  was  removed  so  far  as  it  could  be 
removed. 

Wood  found  the  court  as  well  as  other  public 
records  of  the  island  in  a  confused  state.  He 
applied  a  characteristically  American  method  to 
make  them  clear  and  orderly.  He  established  in 
Havana  a  free  commercial  school  and  furnished 
trained  stenographers,  typists,  and  clericals  to  the 
courts  and  other  governmental  departments. 
Within  a  few  months  young  Cuban  men  and 
women  were  being  distributed  from  this  school  to 
the  courts  and  government  offices  of  the  island  to 
exercise  their  skill  in  making  Spanish  "pothooks," 
transcribe  their  notes  on  typewriters,  and  file  and 
index  records  in  true  American  fashion.  It  was 
a  simple,  common-sense  solution  of  a  vexatious 
problem. 

General  Wood  named  a  prison  commission  which 
went  over  all  the  prisons  in  Cuba  and  released 


Governor  of  Cuba  91 

scores  of  prisoners  against  whom  no  evidence 
of  wrong  doing  could  be  found.  The  whole  prison 
system  was  overhauled  and  remodeled  on  the  pat 
tern  of  the  most  modern  penal  institutions  in  this 
country.  Under  the  Spanish  regime,  youths  and 
first  offenders  had  been  thrown  into  cells  with  old 
criminals.  They  came  out  infected  with  crime 
and  vice.  He  organized  a  new  department  of 
Charities  and  Corrections  under  a  capable  Amer 
ican  superintendent,  Major  E.  St.  John  Greble. 
A  reform  school  for  girls  was  built  at  Aldecoa  and 
another  for  boys  at  Guanajay  where  young  of 
fenders  were  taught  useful  trades  while  paying 
their  social  debts  to  their  country. 

One  of  the  great  faults  of  the  Spanish  adminis 
tration  of  Cuba  was  its  fearful  extravagance.  It 
was  extravagant  not  only  in  that  it  seemed  planned 
with  the  express  view  of  providing  lucrative  posi 
tions  for  Spanish  bureaucrats,  but  in  that  the 
system  itself  was  wasteful.  For  instance,  there 
were  many  local  units  of  government,  towns  and 
villages,  and  rural  communities,  each  of  which  had 
only  a  few  inhabitants  and  none  of  which  was  able 
to  pay  the  expenses  of  a  local  government.  Wood 
abolished  these  small  governmental  units  and 
merged  them  with  larger  communities  thus  effect 
ing  an  important  economic  reform. 

Shortly  after  taking  office  Wood  appointed  a 


92  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

commission  to  draft  a  general  election  law  modelled 
after  our  own.  The  Australian  ballot  system  was 
adopted.  Circulars  describing  the  election  system, 
ballot  and  ballot  boxes  were  sent  out  to  every 
election  district  in  Cuba,  and  within  six  months 
after  he  became  Governor-General  Wood  gave  the 
country  its  first  lesson  in  self-government  at  the 
voting  booths.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history 
of  Cuba  the  people  chose  their  own  local  repre 
sentatives  and  municipal  officials. 

One  of  Wood's  hardest  battles  in  Cuba  was 
directed  against  the  railroad  companies.  Busi 
ness,  big  and  small,  had  been  pretty  thoroughly 
demoralized  during  the  intermittent  revolutions. 
Nothing  much  remained  of  the  railroad  except  an 
impudent  presumption  on  the  part  of  the  railroad 
officials  that  they  could  fix  their  own  rates  at  any 
figure  they  pleased  without  any  regard  whatso 
ever  for  the  public.  They  would  charge  as  high 
as  eighty  cents  for  carrying  a  sugar  bag  weighing 
three  hundred  and  twenty  pounds  from  plantation 
to  seacoast,  while  the  haul  from  the  coast  to  the 
refineries  of  New  York  City,  a  distance  twelve 
times  as  long,  cost  but  from  eighteen  to  twenty 
cents.  Wood  enlisted  the  services  of  Mr.  E.  R. 
Olcott,  an  attorney  of  New  York  City,  who  was 
familiar  with  the  railroad  laws  of  the  Spanish- 
American  countries,  to  rewrite  the  Cuban  railroad 


Governor  of  Cuba  93 

laws  in  conjunction  with  General  Grenville  M. 
Dodge  and  Sir  William  Van  Horn.  An  equitable 
rate  system  was  enforced,  and  under  the  supervi 
sion  of  General  Dodge  and  Sir  William  the  railroads 
were  extended  and  put  in  excellent  repair. 

Under  the  Spanish  regime  the  railroads  had  been 
overtaxed,  which  in  part  accounted  for  the  ex 
orbitant  rates.  They  had  been  forced  to  pay 
ten  per  cent,  on  their  gross  passenger  service 
revenue,  three  per  cent,  on  freight  revenue,  and 
four  and  one  half  per  cent,  on  their  dividends. 
Wood  abolished  the  gross  income  taxes  and  raised 
to  six  per  cent,  the  net  income  tax. 

Wood's  business  ability  as  an  administrator  was 
put  to  a  sudden  and  unexpected  test  by  the  Bacon 
resolution  in  Congress  in  1900.  Up  to  that  time 
the  United  States  had  spent  $42,000,000  of  its 
money  in  Cuba  of  which  $26,000,000  had  been 
expended  under  Wood.  The  resolution  called  for 
a  full  and  immediate  accounting  of  General  Wood's 
stewardship. 

The  first  ship  to  leave  Cuba  for  the  United 
States,  after  Wood  received  his  order,  carried  a 
complete  statement  of  expenditures  accounting 
for  every  dollar  and  accompanied  by  vouchers 
and  the  original  order  for  all  the  money  spent. 

When  the  Americans  entered  Cuba  in  1898, 
there  were  no  public  schools  or  public  school 


94  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

buildings  on  the  island.  All  the  educational  in 
stitutions  were  private  and  for  the  benefit  of  the 
favoured  few  of  the  upper  and  wealthier  classes. 
The  Spanish  government  had  never  distinguished 
itself  either  at  home  or  in  its  colonies  by  encourag 
ing  public  instruction.  During  the  latter  half  of 
the  eighteenth  century  Cuban  youths  had  begun 
to  flock  to  British  colonies  of  this  country  to 
attend  colleges.  They  returned  with  progressive 
ideas  which  did  not  suit  the  Spanish  masters  of  the 
island,  and  in  1799  a  royal  edict  was  issued  warn 
ing  Cuban  parents  against  sending  their  sons  to 
the  colleges  of  this  country  which  had  just  won  its 
independence. 

In  his  instructions  to  General  Wood,  President 
McKinley  had  ordered  him  to  establish  a  good 
school  system.  When  he  received  the  order, 
General  Wood  had  already  founded  a  public  school 
system  in  Cuba.  While  he  was  Military  Governor 
of  Santiago  city  and  province  from  July  20, 1898,  to 
December  12,  1899,  he  had  established  nearly  two 
hundred  schools  within  the  territory  under  his 
jurisdiction. 

Wood  now  began  to  create  a  national  system 
of  education.  He  found  two  young  men  among 
his  officers  well  trained  for  undertaking  this  labour. 
They  were  Lieut.  Alexis  Everett  Frye,  a  Harvard 
man  who,  before  volunteering  as  a  soldier  in  the 


Governor  of  Cuba  95 

Spanish-American  War,  had  achieved  distinction  as 
an  educator,  and  Lieut.  Matthew  E.  Hanna,  a 
West  Pointer,  who  had  been  a  school  teacher  be 
fore  entering  the  Military  Academy. 

Under  Wood's  instructions  Lieutenants  Frye 
and  Hanna  drafted  a  school  law  modelled  largely 
after  the  Massachusetts  and  Ohio  systems.  The 
school  system  was  made  independent  of  politics 
and  provided  for  the  election  of  officials  by  the 
people.  Due  credit  in  the  building  of  the  Cuban 
schools  must  be  given  to  Dr.  Enrique  Jose  Varona, 
Secretary  of  Public  Instruction,  a  Cuban. 

In  every  town  or  community  of  five  hundred 
people  two  schools  were  built,  one  for  each  sex. 
Most  of  the  instructors  had  little  or  no  teaching 
experience,  but  they  entered  on  their  duties  with 
a  splendid  enthusiasm  for  service,  and  thousands 
of  little  children,  black  and  white,  whose  parents 
had  never  dared  hope  that  their  offspring  would 
receive  the  benefits  of  education,  flocked  to  the 
schoolrooms.  With  the  advent  of  the  schools  there 
was  a  new  hope  born  for  the  young  manhood  and 
womanhood  of  the  island.  The  school  districts 
were  divided  into  three  classes:  municipal  dis 
tricts  of  the  first  class  for  cities  of  30,000  or 
more  inhabitants;  municipal  districts  of  the  sec 
ond  class  for  cities  of  10,000  inhabitants  and 
less  than  30,000;  and  municipal  districts  of  the 


96  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

third  class  for  communities  of  less  than  10,000. 
These  districts  were  sub-divided  into  school  units 
having  at  least  sixty  resident  pupils.  Wood  and 
his  able  assistants  took  infinite  care  in  choosing 
textbooks  and  other  school  equipment.  The 
schoolrooms  were  up-to-date  in  every  way.  Com 
plete  records  were  kept  of  attendance  and  of 
progress  made  by  the  young  pupils.  Examining 
boards  were  appointed.  Summer  normal  schools 
were  established  so  that  the  inexperienced  teachers 
could  profit  by  instruction  in  pedagogy. 

Within  a  year  after  Wood  entered  office  as  Gov- 
enor-General  more  than  3,000  public  schools  had 
been  opened.  In  1902  Cuba  could  boast  of  public 
school  enrollment  of  256,000  pupils,  surely  not  a 
bad  beginning  in  a  country  having  a  population 
of  only  a  little  more  than  a  million  and  a  half. 
The  cost  was  $4,000,000.  Under  Spanish  rule  the 
island  had  been  bled  for  $7,000,000  per  year  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  Spanish  troops  and  navy 
in  and  around  Cuba  for  the  express  purpose  of 
keeping  the  natives  enslaved.  Out  of  the 
$34,000,000  collected  annually  in  Cuba,  $182,000 
had  been  spent  for  educational  purposes  by  the 
Spanish  authorities. 

When  General  Wood  was  organizing  the  school 
system,  a  friend  advised  him  to  import  American 
teachers. 


Governor  of  Cuba  97 

"I'll  do  nothing  of  the  sort,"  he  replied.  "If 
we  did,  the  Cubans  would  misunderstand  us  and 
think  we  were  seeking  to  'Americanize'  the  chil 
dren." 

So  native  teachers  of  the  best  families  of  Cuba 
were  found  to  instruct  the  youth.  It  was  Wood's 
policy  to  appoint  Cubans  wherever  possible  to 
official  positions.  During  the  reconstruction  many 
of  the  high  executive  posts  were  occupied  by  Amer 
icans  who  held  military  rank.  The  Americans 
were  displaced  as  soon  as  Cubans  fitted  for  these 
high  offices  could  be  found.  It  was  an  important 
part  of  Wood's  job  to  train  native  public  servants 
so  that  Cuba  might  as  soon  as  possible  stand  on 
her  own  feet.  To  do  this  he  had  to  conduct  in 
fact  a  school  of  democratic  government  for  Cuban 
people,  and  to  materialize  therein  all  the  cardinal 
principles  of  American  democracy. 

WThile  building  up  the  free  school  system,  Wood 
encouraged  the  private  schools.  Technical  schools 
for  boys  and  girls  were  established  in  various  cities 
and  soon  commanded  large  attendance. 

Wood  found  the  University  of  Havana,  the  only 
institution  in  Cuba  conferring  degrees,  in  a  cur 
ious  state  of  demoralization.  The  faculty  of  the 
University  consisted  of  ninety-six  professors,  all 
wrell  paid;  but  there  were  only  four  hundred  and 
six  students.  Most  of  the  professors  had  very 


98  Tfie  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

little  to  do,  many  of  them  did  nothing  at  all, 
having  no  classes,  no  pupils.  The  laboratory 
equipment  was  utterly  worthless,  the  buildings 
were  dilapidated,  and  all  the  furnishings  run  down. 
Wood  ordered  a  complete  reorganization  of  the 
University.  He  compelled  all  candidates  for  the 
faculty  to  submit  to  competitive  examinations. 
He  sent  purchasing  agents  to  Europe  and  the 
United  States  to  buy  the  most  modern  equipment, 
scientific  instruments  and  other  necessary  appara 
tus.  The  University  was  poorly  located.  Wood 
scrapped  the  old  buildings  and  installed  the 
University  in  a  far  superior  structure,  built  by  the 
Spaniards  as  an  arsenal  and  munition  factory  and 
situated  on  a  hill  overlooking  the  city.  The 
University  still  remains  on  this  site,  one  of  the 
most  picturesque  in  Havana,  commanding,  as  it^ 
does,  a  view  of  the  whole  city.  j 

While  he  objected  to  importing  American 
teachers  on  the  ground  that  the  Cubans  would 
justly  fear  an  attempt  was  being  made  to  "Amer 
icanize"  the  island,  Wood  endeavoured  in  every 
way  to  give  the  Cuban  teachers  the  best  benefits 
of  our  experience  in  education.  In  the  spring  of 
1900,  Harvard  University  invited  the  teachers 
of  the  island  to  spend  their  vacation  at  its  summer 
school  to  learn  something  of  American  pedagogy. 
Wood  enthusiastically  championed  this  venture. 


Governor  of  Cuba  99 

He  sent  1,280  teachers  to  Cambridge,  Massa 
chusetts,  all  expenses  being  paid  by  the  Military 
Government. 

He  was  under  no  delusion  as  to  the  actual 
amount  of  studying  they  could  accomplish  on  this 
junket.  But  what  he  was  anxious  for  was  to  have 
the  teachers  see  something  of  America  and  of  our 
best  educational  institutions,  to  put  them  in  touch 
with  our  leading  educators,  and  to  create  the 
friendliest  feeling  between  these  guides  of  Cuba's 
future  citizens  and  the  people  of  this  country.  The 
trip  was  an  entire  success  and  the  teachers  re 
turned  to  their  schools  with  fresh  inspiration 
gathered  in  the  course  of  the  delightful  journey 
and  their  brief  period  of  association  with  some  of 
the  most  cultured  men  and  women  of  our  country. 

One  of  the  sad  problems  of  the  Military  Gov 
ernment  and  one  of  the  most  difficult  to  solve 
was  that  of  the  Cuban  war  orphans.  During  the 
rebellion,  which  led  up  to  our  interference,  thou 
sands  of  families  had  become  disrupted,  and 
thousands  of  little  waifs,  who  had  lost  trace  of 
their  parents,  were  begging  in  the  cities.  The 
problem  was  most  similar  to  that  which  various 
American  organizations  are  now  seeking  to  solve 
in  Serbia,  Roumania,  Poland,  and  other  countries 
which  were  over-run  by  hostile  armies  in  the  late 
war.  Wood  established  five  commodious  asylums 


100  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

for  the  parentless  children.  Here  they  were  given 
the  best  of  instructions  and  the  best  of  care  that 
the  country  could  afford.  At  that  time  the  ques 
tion  of  organized  charity  had  not  received  the 
careful  study  it  now  has.  Twenty  years  ago  we 
had  not  heard  much  of  the  dangers  of  institution 
alizing  and  pauperizing  individuals  dependent  on 
public  aid.  However,  Wood  immediately  foresaw 
the  possible  dangers  to  which  the  war  orphans 
might  be  subjected  in  these  asylums.  He  there 
fore  gave  strict  instructions  to  his  subordinates  to 
find  suitable,  permanent  homes  for  them  as  soon 
as  possible.  This  policy  was  followed  in  the  case 
of  young  war  victims,  so  far  as  it  was  possible. 

The  great  number  of  war  orphans  and  the 
abnormal  percentage  of  common -law  unions  gave 
a  sinister  indication  of  the  decline  of  Cuba's  social 
state,  due  entirely  to  the  demoralization  of  the 
revolutionary  wars.  The  family  unit,  the  very 
foundation  of  every  civilized  state,  was  in  the 
process  of  disintegration.  One  who  delves  into 
the  voluminous  official  reports  of  the  American 
occupation  of  Cuba,  and  reads  therein  the  dry 
accounts  of  the  conditions  which  existed  at  the 
close  of  the  Spanish-American  War,  is  forced 
to  the  conclusion  that  Cuba  needed  a  Moses,  a 
prophet,  whom  the  people  would  follow  blindly, 
trust  with  religious  devotion,  and  for  whom  they 


Governor  of  Cuba- 


101 


would  sacrifice  all  their  selfish  interests  and  pre 
judices.  That  a  doctor  and  soldier  of  an  alien 
race,  speaking  but  haltingly  their  language,  could 
so  completely  immerse  himself  in  their  national 
life,  so  intelligently  understand  their  requirements, 
and  so  wisely  solve  their  complex  problems  seems 
almost  miraculous. 

And  Leonard  Wood  had  come  to  Cuba  to  fight ! 

He  did  fight,  but  he  remained  to  rule.  And  for 
the  brilliant  success  of  his  administration  there  is 
but  one  explanation — his  sound  common  sense. 
After  all,  genius  is  but  common  sense  developed 
to  the  nth  degree. 

Wood  knew  little  or  nothing  of  the  so-called  arts 
of  statesmanship  and  diplomacy,  and  yet  he  was 
constantly  called  upon  for  the  exercise  of  both  in 
adjusting  public  questions,  which  demanded  great 
tact  and  a  sagacious  appraisal  of  social  and  relig 
ious  conditions  on  the  island.  In  settling  the 
questions  of  the  marriage  laws  and  the  claims  of 
the  Holy  See  against  the  United  States  as  suc 
cessor  to  the  Spanish  Government  in  Cuba  he  had 
to  play  the  role  of  a  statesman  and  a  diplomat. 

There  had  recently  been  instituted  laws  which 
recognized  as  legal  only  those  marriages  which 
were  performed  by  judges.  Marriages  by  the 
clergy  were  invalid.  One  can  imagine  how  such 
a  condition  of  affairs  would  shock  a  deeply  re- 


102         ''The 'Life* of  Leonard  Wood 

Kgious  Catholic  community.  Thousands  of  couples 
had  ignored  the  law.  They  had  been  married 
by  the  priests  of  their  faith  without  any  civil 
ceremony.  Naturally  these  good  people  were 
outraged  by  the  fact  that  in  the  eyes  of  the  law 
their  unions  were  merely  those  of  common  law,  and 
the  legitimacy  of  their  offspring  was  a  disputed  and 
unsettled  matter.  Others  had  dispensed  with  all 
or  any  ceremony. 

Wood  immediately  recognized  the  grave  injus 
tice  and  the  potential  danger  of  this  condition. 
Although  a  Protestant  in  religion,  he  consulted 
with  the  Catholic  clergy  in  drafting  a  new  mar 
riage  code  which  would  remove  the  causes  of  com 
plaint.  The  new  law  gave  the  same  rights  to  the 
duly -ordained  clergymen  of  all  denominations  as 
to  civil  marriage  officials.  The  clergy  were  in 
vested  with  the  right  to  act  as  agents  of  the  state 
in  filling  out  the  forms  required  by  the  new  mar 
riage  statute.  The  children  born  of  common -law 
marriages  were  legitimatized. 

In  the  years  from  1837  to  1841  Spain  had 
secularized  all  church  property  in  her  colonial 
possession.  Complicated  disputes  had  arisen  be 
tween  the  state  and  the  Holy  See,  finally  resulting 
in  an  agreement  entered  into  in  1861,  whereby 
Spain  promised  to  return  to  the  church  all  property 
not  disposed  of,  and  to  pay  for  forty  years  an 


Governor  of  Cuba  103 

annual  rental  of  more  than  $500,000  on  all  other 
church  properties  held  by  the  state  for  various 
purposes.  As  a  legal  successor  to  Spain  in  Cuba, 
the  Military  Government  was  presented  with  a 
handsome  bill  by  the  church  authorities.  Wood 
instituted  an  extensive  and  thorough  inquiry  into 
the  church  claims.  Instead  of  approaching  this 
matter  as  though  it  were  strictly  a  legal  case  in 
which  the  Catholic  church  was  the  complainant 
and  the  Military  Government  the  defendant,  Wood 
assumed  that  both  sides  involved  desired  only  a 
fair  settlement.  Investigation  showed  that  the 
claims  of  the  church  were  eminently  fair,  and  a  full 
settlement  was  made  to  the  satisfaction  of  all 
parties  concerned. 

It  is  practically  certain  that  the  legal  advisers 
of  the  Military  Government  could  have  picked 
plenty  of  flaws  in  the  church  claims,  and  that,  had 
he  so  desired,  Wood  could  have  evaded  full  settle 
ment.  He  went  through  the  unwieldy  mass  of 
documents  covering  the  case,  but  instead  of  look 
ing  for  handy  pegs  on  which  to  hang  a  legal  de 
fence,  Wood,  guided  by  sound  common  sense, 
recognized  the  fundamental  principles  of  justice 
involved  and  inside  of  a  few  days  he  had  settled 
forever  a  dispute  half  a  century  old.  Without 
amicable  relationship  with  the  church  Wood's 
reconstruction  work  in  Cuba  would  have  been 


104  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

rendered  most  difficult.  His  enemies  might  have 
charged  that  he  was  shrewdly  currying  favour 
with  the  powerful  clerical  interest.  But  we  shall 
see,  before  we  reach  the  end  of  his  Cuban  ad 
ministration,  that  Wood  was  unafraid  to  antago 
nize  even  more  powerful  individuals  than  Bishop 
Donatus  of  Havana,  when  to  do  otherwise  would 
have  meant  breach  of  trust  and  confidence. 

During  his  Santiago  administration  Bishop 
Bernaba  was  elevated  from  the  priesthood.  An 
ardent  Cuban  patriot,  he  showed  great  affectiom 
for  the  liberators  of  his  country  and  extended  an 
invitation  to  Wood  to  walk  with  him  in  the  cere 
monial  procession  from  his  little  parish  church 
where  he  had  served  to  the  Cathedral.  The  pro 
cession  was  an  intensely  dramatic  and  solemn 
spectacle  dominated  as  it  was  by  the  tragedies 
of  the  past  and  the  joy  of  liberation  from  the  Span 
ish  yoke.  Thousands  of  Cubans  lined  the  streets 
and  crowded  forward  to  receive  their  first  blessing 
from  a  Cuban  bishop.  When  the  people  saw  the 
American  Military  Governor  walking  by  the  side 
of  the  new  Bishop  and  under  his  canopy  they  cried : 
"Thank  God  the  General  is  a  Catholic."  The 
Bishop  was  an  old  man  and  he  was  so  overcome 
by  his  emotions  that  General  Wood  had  to  steady 
him  with  his  strong  arm.  Sometimes,  as  the 
Bishop  leaned  forward  to  bless  the  people,  who  one 


Governor  of  Cuba  105 

after  another  grasped  his  hand  to  kiss  it,  his  mitre 
would  slip  to  one  side,  but  there  was  a  cool  and 
dignified  young  American  General  by  his  side  who 
would  straighten  the  mitre  without  any  em 
barrassment,  and  this  simple  service  was  received 
in  the  spirit  in  which  it  was  rendered.  "Thank  God 
you're  here,"  the  Bishop  said.  "I'm  so  old  that  I 
could  not  have  made  this  long  journey  if  you  had 
not  been  here  to  help  me."  When  Wood  told  him 
that  he  was  not  a  Catholic,  Bishop  Bernaba 
said,  "You're  a  good  Catholic,  only  you  do  not 
know  it." 

When,  in  1899,  Wood  left  Santiago  for  a  visit 
to  the  United  States  the  people  of  the  city  pre 
sented  him  with  an  illuminated  scroll  in  Spanish, 
reading  in  part: 

"The  greatest  of  your  successes  is  to  have  won 
the  confidence  and  esteem  of  a  people  in  trouble." 

After  straightening  out  the  Cuban  marriage 
law  Wood  received  the  following  letter  from  the 
Bishop  of  Havana  dated  August  10,  1900: 

I  saw  published  in  the  official  Gazette  yesterday  the 
decree  whereby  you  give  civil  effect  and  validity  to 
religious  marriages.  This  act  of  your  Excellency 
corresponds  perfectly  with  the  elevated  ideals  of  justice, 
fairness,  and  true  liberty  to  which  aspired  the  institu 
tions  and  government  of  the  United  States,  which  you  so 
worthily  represent  in  this  Island. 


106  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

I  gladly  take  this  opportunity  of  declaring  that  in  all 
my  dealings  with  your  Excellency  I  have  found  you 
ever  disposed  to  listen  to  all  reasonable  petitions  and  to 
guard  the  sacred  rights  of  justice  which  is  the  firmest 
foundation  of  every  honoured  and  noble  nation. 

I  am  moved,  therefore,  to  speak  the  thanks  not  only 
of  the  Catholics  but  likewise  of  all  others  who  truly 
love  the  moral,  religious,  and  political  well-being  of  the 
people,  and  to  express  to  your  Excellency  the  sincere 
feelings  and  satisfaction  and  gratitude  for  this  decree, 
which  is  worthy  of  a  wise  leader  and  an  able  statesman. 
This,  too,  gives  me  confidence  that  all  your  decrees  and 
orders  will  continue  to  be  dictated  by  the  same  high- 
minded  and  liberal  spirit  of  justice  that  while  it  respects 
the  religious  sentiment,  also  guarantees  and  defends 
the  rights  and  liberties  of  all  honest  institutions. 
Very  respectfully  yours, 

X.  DONATUS,  Bishop  of  Havana. 

On  leaving  Havana  in  November,  1901,  to  be 
come  Bishop  of  Ephesus,  Bishop  Donatus  wrote 
Wood  as  follows: 


Called  by  the  confidence  of  the  Holy  Father  to  a 
larger  and  more  difficult  field  of  action,  I  feel  the  duty 
before  leaving  Cuba  to  express  to  your  Excellency  my 
sentiment  of  friendship  and  gratitude,  not  only  for  the 
kindness  shown  to  me,  but  for  the  fair  treatment  of  the 
questions  with  the  Government  of  the  Island,  especially 
the  Marriage  and  Church  Property  questions.  The 
equity  and  justice  which  inspired  your  decision  will 
devolve  before  all  fair-minded  people  to  the  honour,  not 


Governor  of  Cuba  107 

only  of  you  personally,  but  also  to  the  Government  you 
so  worthily  represent.  I  am  gratified  to  tell  you  that 
I  have  already  expressed  the  same  sentiment  to  the 
Holy  Father  in  writing  and  I  will  tell  him  orally  on  my 
visit  to  Rome. 

Yours  very  respectfully, 
X.  DONATUS,  Bishop  of  Havana. 

When  he  was  about  to  leave  for  the  Philippines 
after  finishing  his  work  in  Cuba,  General  Wood 
was  the  recipient  of  a  most  remarkable  expression 
of  confidence  from  the  Catholic  church  of  this 
country.  A  delegation  of  church  authorities 
headed  by  the  Reverend  William  Ambrose  Jones, 
later  Bishop  of  Porto  Rico,  called  on  Wood  to  re 
quest  him  to  represent  the  Catholic  church  in  the 
Philippines.  If  this  were  agreeable  to  him,  the 
delegates  said,  they  would  approach  the  President 
to  suggest  that  he  be  invested  with  the  proper 
authority,  whereupon  the  church  would  give  him 
full  power  to  represent  it  in  all  cases  dealing  with 
the  Philippine  colonial  government. 

No  review  of  Leonard  Wood's  career  would  be 
complete  without  an  account  of  the  successful 
campaign  fought  during  his  Cuban  administration 
against  the  plagues  of  the  island,  especially  yellow 
fever. 

General  Wood  did  not  personally  slay  this  mon 
ster,  which  annually  took  a  toll  of  thousands  of 


108  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

lives  and  millions  of  dollars,  but  with  his  knowledge 
of  medical  science  and  his  physician's  appreciation 
of  the  importance  of  conquering  the  plague,  he 
left  nothing  undone  to  smooth  the  way  for  the 
scientists  working  under  his  jurisdiction  in  stamp 
ing  it  out. 

There  is  glory  enough  for  all  who  shared  in  the 
labours  of  Major  Walter  Reed,  the  American 
conqueror  of  yellow  fever.  The  hard  and  difficult 
campaign  which  he  waged  would  certainly  have 
been  rendered  more  hard  and  difficult  and  costly 
in  life  had  he  not  received  the  intelligent  and 
devoted  cooperation  of  the  central  Cuban  Mili 
tary  Government. 

It  has  never  been  disputed  that  it  was  the  con 
quest  of  yellow  fever  which  made  possible  the 
construction  of  the  Panama  Canal  at  the  time 
it  was  built.  The  United  States  could  never  have 
accomplished  this  monumental  feat  of  engineering 
with  yellow  fever  infesting  the  American  tropics. 
The  cost  in  lives  would  have  been  prohibitive. 

General  Wood  was  one  of  the  first  converts  of 
the  medical  fraternity  to  the  theory  that  yellow 
fever  was  a  germ,  not  a  filth  disease.  He  had 
employed  in  Santiago  city  the  most  modern 
methods  of  sanitation  and  he  had  strictly  enforced 
his  health  decrees.  But  in  their  effect  on  yellow 
fever  all  these  precautions  were  practically  worth- 


Governor  of  Cuba  109 

less.  Better  sanitation  was  effected,  but  even 
perfect  sanitation  failed  to  check  the  progress  of 
yellow  fever. 

In  1899,  when  Wood  had  made  Santiago  the 
cleanest  city  in  tropical  America,  if  not  in  the 
Western  Hemisphere,  a  virulent  yellow-fever 
epidemic  broke  out  in  the  city.  The  Military 
Government  met  the  crisis  by  quarantining  the 
port.  Non-immunes  were  removed,  infected  houses 
were  closed,  and  Wood's  sanitation  squads  scoured 
the  community  with  disinfectants.  Even  the 
streets  were  sprinkled  with  solutions  of  corrosive 
sublimate.  Two  American  physicians,  Drs.  Car 
roll  and  Lazaer,  heroically  presented  themselves  for 
inoculation.  Dr.  Lazaer  died  while  Dr.  Carroll 
recovered. 

In  an  article  on  the  Military  Government  in 
Cuba,  published  in  the  Annals  of  the  American 
Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science  in  1903, 
General  Wood  tells  the  story  of  Dr.  Reed's  dis 
covery.  He  states  that  Drs.  Reed,  Carroll,  and 
Kean  called  at  the  headquarters  of  the  Military 
Government  in  Havana  one  day  and  informed  him 
that  they  had  reached  a  point  in  their  scientific 
research  where  it  was  necessary  to  make  extensive 
experiments  on  human  beings.  They  asked  the 
Governor-General  for  money  to  pay  those  who 
submitted  themselves  for  inoculation  and  for  au- 


110  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

thority  to  go  ahead  with  their  dangerous  investi 
gation. 

General  Wood  told  the  physicians  that  they  had 
the  backing  of  the  Cuban  Military  Government, 
financial  and  otherwise.  He  cautioned  them  to 
experiment  only  on  sound  persons  who  understood 
distinctly  the  risk  assumed.  The  written  consent 
of  the  subject  must  be  secured  before  inoculation. 
He  further  stipulated  that  the  subject  must  be 
of  legal  age.  General  Wood,  in  a  report  of  the 
achievement,  wrote: 

The  stegomyia  mosquito  was  found  to  be,  beyond 
question,  the  means  of  transmitting  the  yellow  fever 
germ.  This  mosquito,  in  order  to  become  infected, 
must  bite  a  person  sick  with  yellow  fever  during  the  first 
five  days  of  the  disease.  It  then  requires  apparently 
ten  days  for  the  germ  so  to  develop  that  the  mosquito 
can  transmit  the  disease,  and  all  non-immunes  who  are 
bitten  by  a  mosquito  of  the  class  mentioned,  infected  as 
described,  invariably  develop  a  pronounced  case  of 
yellow  fever  in  from  three  and  a  half  to  five  days  from 
the  time  they  are  bitten.  It  was  further  demonstrated 
that  infection  from  cases  so  produced  could  again  be 
transmitted  by  the  above-described  type  of  mosquito 
to  another  person  who  could  in  turn  become  infected 
with  the  fever.  It  was  also  proven  that  yellow  fever 
could  be  transmitted  by  means  of  introduction  into 
the  circulation  of  blood  serum  even  after  filtering 
through  porcelain  filters,  which  later  experiment  in 
dicates  that  the  organism  is  exceedingly  small,  in  fact, 


Governor  of  Cuba  111 

that  it  is  probably  beyond  the  power  of  any  microscope 
at  present  in  use.  It  was  positively  demonstrated  that 
yellow  fever  could  not  be  transmitted  by  clothing,  let 
ters,  etc.,  and  that  consequently  all  the  old  methods  of 
fumigation  and  disinfection  were  only  useful  in  so  far  as 
they  served  to  destroy  mosquitoes,  their  young  and 
their  eggs. 

With  the  establishment  of  these  facts  was  inaugu 
rated  an  entirely  new  method  of  dealing  with  yellow 
fever,  a  method  very  similar  to  that  adopted  in  the 
treatment  of  malarial  fever  cases,  only  carried  out 
much  more  thoroughly. 

A  yellow  fever  case,  as  soon  as  discovered,  was  care 
fully  isolated  in  premises  inclosed  with  fine  wire  screens, 
and  further  precautions  taken  to  prevent  the  mosquito 
from  coming  to  them.  The  houses  in  which  cases  had 
occurred  were  sealed  up  and  filled  with  formaldehyde 
or  other  gases,  for  the  purpose  of  killing  all  mosquitoes. 
The  same  was  done  with  neighbouring  houses.  The 
effect  of  this  method  of  dealing  with  the  disease  was  at 
once  apparent.  The  fever  was  checked  and  brought 
to  an  end  at  a  time  of  the  year  when  it  is  usually  on 
the  increase.  This  was  accomplished  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  a  large  number  of  non-immunes  arrived  in 
Havana  and  other  ports  of  the  island.  The  disagree 
able  and  costly  process  of  disinfection  formerly  in  use 
had  been  practically  done  away  with.  The  means  at 
present  employed  is  much  less  destructive  to  property 
and  much  less  annoying  to  the  people. 

Cuba  is  now  free  from  yellow  fever,  and  has  been  so 
for  a  considerable  period.  There  has  not  been  a  case 
originating  in  the  east  end  of  the  island  for  three  years, 
and  none  in  Havana  for  more  than  a  year.  No  epidemic 


The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

of  yellow  fever  has  appeared  in  the  Southern  states  in  all 
that  time. 

Thus  the  long  and  tragic  history  of  this  danger 
ous  disease  which  had  held  back  the  development 
of  the  tropics  was  brought  to  a  close.  In  1901 
twenty-nine  persons  per  thousand  were  admitted 
to  hospitals  in  Cuba  as  yellow-fever  patients.  In 
1902  there  was  one  case  of  yellow  fever  in  the 
island. 

American  physicians  had  achieved  one  of  the 
greatest  scientific  triumphs  of  modern  times,  mak 
ing  tropical  America  safe  for  the  whole  white  race. 
That  is  civilization. 

The  deliverance  of  the  American  tropics  from 
the  subjugation  of  the  horrible  yellow-fever  night 
mare  came  with  a  dramatic  suddenness  which 
startled  the  whole  world  of  medical  science.  It 
was  the  outstanding  master-stroke  of  the  American 
occupation  of  Cuba  as  it  conferred  on  humanity 
a  world-wide  blessing.  Leonard  Wood's  labour 
of  making  Cuba  a  safer  place  through  the  ap 
plication  of  the  principles  of  modern  sanitation 
and  health  measures  in  general  was  of  slower 
development.  He  began  fighting  his  battle  for 
sanitation  in  the  island  when  he  became  Military 
Governor  of  Santiago  and  kept  up  the  fight  until 
he  left  Cuba.  He  found  the  island  suffering  from 


Governor  of  Cuba  113 

tuberculosis,  typhoid,  glanders,  small-pox,  and 
leprosy.  He  wiped  out  the  filth  diseases,  launched 
an  educational  campaign  throughout  the  country 
to  check  typhoid  and  tuberculosis.  He  ordered 
the  population  vaccinated  to  prevent  small-pox, 
and  isolated  the  lepers. 

The  progress  of  his  sanitation  labours  may  be 
judged  by  the  fact  that  in  1898  there  was  prob 
ably  not  one  single  American  soldier  in  Cuba 
who  was  not  at  some  time  disabled  by  disease,  the 
mortality  rate  from  disease  among  our  troops 
being  very  high,  while  during  the  ten  and  two 
thirds  months  ending  May  30, 1902,  the  death  rate 
among  American  troops  in  Cuba  was  1.67  per 
thousand  from  disease;  in  the  United  States,  4.83, 
and  in  the  Pacific  islands,  20.26.  In  other  words, 
the  chances  of  a  soldier  dying  in  the  United  States 
were  almost  three  times  greater  than  in  Cuba  which 
four  years  before  had  been  unfit  for  a  foreign-born 
person. 

There  were  no  trained  nurses  in  the  island  when 
the  Americans  came.  General  Wood  established 
training  schools  for  nurses,  and  the  graduates  of 
these  institutions  became  his  most  valuable  health 
and  sanitation  missionaries  in  Cuba.  Nor  was 
all  the  work  which  he  had  begun  for  the  health  of 
the  community  to  be  allowed  to  lapse  when  the 
Americans  withdrew. 


114  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

When  the  Cuban  Constitutional  Convention 
which  sat  in  Havana  from  November  5,  1900,  to 
February  21,  1901,  had  finished  its  work,  and  the 
new  Constitution,  modelled  largely  on  our  own,  had 
been  ratified  by  the  representatives  of  the  Cuban 
people,  the  United  States  Government  insisted  on 
inserting  in  this  document  several  paragraphs  for 
the  protection  of  the  new  republic.  These  clauses, 
known  as  the  Platt  Amendment,  were  made  a  part 
of  the  Cuban  Constitution  on  June  12,  1901.  One 
of  these  clauses  pledges  the  Cuban  government  to 
continue  the  public  sanitation  measures  begun  by 
General  Wood  and  his  assistants  in  the  island.  The 
American  Government,  in  other  words,  thought 
so  well  of  Wood's  work  for  a  healthier  Cuba  that 
it  insisted  on  perpetuating  it  in  the  Constitution 
on  which  rests  the  Cuban  Republic. 

Wood  built  school  houses  in  practically  every 
community  throughout  Cuba,  and  modern  hos 
pitals  in  all  the  larger  towns.  Harbours  were 
dredged  and  otherwise  improved  for  shipping,  and 
lighthouses  were  constructed;  Wood's  railway 
experts  built  a  good  share  of  the  present  railway 
system  of  Cuba,  and  it  was  due  to  his  championing 
of  good  roads  that  highways  were  constructed 
throughout  the  rich  agricultural  districts  connect 
ing  the  sugar  fields  with  ports  or  with  inland  towns 
having  railroad  communications.  Telegraph  and 


Governor  of  Cuba  115 

telephone  lines  were  extended  to  every  town  of 
size,  and  by  the  time  the  island  was  transferred  to 
the  Cuban  government,  three  hundred  post- 
offices  had  been  established.  The  customs  service 
was  reorganized  and  a  modern  system  of  ac 
counting  and  auditing  established  and  maintained. 
Wood  expended  about  $15,000,000  of  the  Military 
Government's  money  for  these  public  works.  i 

What  astonished  the  Cubans  quite  as  much  as 
the  actual  amount  of  improvements  accomplished 
was  the  fact  that  the  cost  of  everything  done  was 
so  small.  One  instance  will  show  the  difference  in 
prices  paid  for  public  works  under  Spanish  and 
American  rule.  Shortly  before  the  United  States 
interfered,  the  Spanish  Military  Governor  of 
Santiago  had  built  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  macadam 
pavement  along  the  Santiago  waterfront.  The 
cost  was  $180,000.  A  few  months  later  Wood's 
engineers  laid  down  five  miles  of  asphalt  pavement 
in  Santiago  at  a  total  cost  of  $175,000. 

Wood  succeeded  in  performing  his  enormous 
task  of  rehabilitating  the  island  with  practically 
no  friction,  all  the  educated  and  enlightened 
Cubans  and  the  vast  majority  of  the  Cuban  people 
cooperating  heartily  with  him.  An  explanation 
of  his  success  may  be  had  from  the  following 
episode  illustrating  his  method  of  dealing  with  the 
people.  We  quote  from  an  article  published  in 


116  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

McClure's  Magazine  when  Wood  was  Military 
Governor  of  Santiago,  written  by  Ray  Stannard 
Baker,  the  man  whom  President  Wilson  appointed 
as  head  of  the  American  Press  Bureau  at  the  late 
Peace  Conference  in  Paris: 

I  shall  never  forget  a  visit  I  made  with  General  Wood 
and  his  Staff  to  Guantanamo.  The  Governor  of  San 
tiago  has  a  passion  for  appearing  unexpectedly  in  out- 
of-the  way  places  in  order  to  see  the  machinery  of  his 
government  in  its  every-day  work.  If  there  happens 
to  be  a  particularly  heavy  rain  storm,  with  impassable 
roads,  the  Governor  may  confidently  be  expected.  It 
was  raining  torrents  when  we  visited  Guantanamo 
and  it  was  Sunday  morning.  A  little  group  of  Cubans 
stood  on  the  wharf  at  Caimanera  and  watched  the 
Americans  coming  up  from  the  launch.  When  a  Span 
ish  governor  arrived  there  were  always  flags  and  music 
and  crowds;  but  the  American  Governor — what  a 
wonder  he  was!  He  was  clad  exactly  like  the  other 
men  of  the  party,  in  a  brown  khaki  suit.  He  wore  a 
peaked  cavalry  hat  and  buff  leather  riding  leggings  and 
spurs.  His  only  distinguished  mark  was  the  star  on 
his  shoulder,  the  insignia  of  a  Brigadier-General,  and 
that  was  too  high  up  for  any  of  the  little  Cubans  to  see. 

Guantanamo  is  a  typical  east  Cuban  town  of  some 
10,000  inhabitants.  On  this  Sunday  morning  it  was 
swimming  in  clay  mud,  and  wore  an  indescribable  air 
of  apathy  and  disheartenment.  The  faces  at  the  doors 
were  tired  and  lustreless,  and  even  the  clinking  of  the 
spurred  heels  of  the  Americans  on  the  narrow  flag  walks 
failed  to  arouse  any  marked  interest.  Perhaps  they 


Governor  of  Cuba  117 

didn't  know  that  it  was  the  Governor  who  passed.  In 
a  big,  bare,  dilapidated  room  with  barred  windows 
a  conference  was  held  with  the  mayor  and  city  council. 
The  mayor  was  a  small,  dry,  brown  old  man,  very 
smugly  clad  in  a  black  suit.  In  his  curl-brim  straw  hat 
he  wore  the  coloured  cockade  of  a  Cuban  general — the 
only  bit  of  colour  about  him — he  carried  a  curious  tor 
toise-shell  cane,  on  which  he  leaned  with  both  hands. 
He  sat  next  to  the  American  Governor,  and,  oddly 
enough,  exactly  beneath  a  picture  of  Admiral  Dewey, 
and  solemnly  watched  each  speaker.  The  city  coun 
cil  was  made  up  very  much  like  an  American  village 
board,  of  the  apothecary,  the  wheelwright,  the  doctor, 
and  so  on;  but  the  members  varied  in  colour  from  the 
pure  olive  of  the  Spaniard  to  the  shiny  black  of  the 
full-blooded  Negro. 

The  Governor  rose  and  greeted  each  man  as  he  came 
in  with  serious  politeness,  for  politeness  is  the  bread  of 
existence  to  the  Cubans.  After  they  were  all  seated 
and  the  conference  had  begun,  in  walked  that  typical 
Cuban  institution,  the  agitating  editor.  He  came  with 
an  indescribable  bustle  of  importance  and  opposition, 
a  dramatic  effect  unattainable  by  any  Anglo-Saxon. 
His  notebook  and  pencil  were  clearly  in  evidence,  and 
he  spurned  the  chair  which  was  offered  him.  The 
dry  old  mayor  looked  at  him  with  a  solemn  lack  of 
interest;  the  American  Governor  saw  him  not  at  all. 
The  chief  of  the  rural  guard  was  also  there,  a  big,  hand 
some  fellow,  as  straight  and  lithe  as  a  bamboo-pole. 
A  pistol  tipped  up  the  skirts  of  his  coat.  He  wore 
black  patent-leather  leggings,  silver  spurs,  and  a  white 
linen  uniform  with  black  stripings,  which  set  him  off 
with  jaunty  consequence. 


118  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

At  first  the  talk  (through  an  interpreter)  was  of 
money.  They  had  not  yet  received  their  allowance 
from  the  customs  fund,  and  General  Wood  explained 
why  it  was  delayed.  The  apothecary  then  reported 
that  they  had  decided  to  build  a  fine  yellow  fever  hos 
pital  of  stone;  but  General  Wood  advised  a  wooden 
structure,  with  a  wide  veranda,  and  he  explained  with 
the  ready  knowledge  of  a  skilled  physician  how  difficult 
it  was  to  disinfect  a  stone  building.  The  grave  old 
mayor  nodded  his  head ;  the  American  Governor  was  wise. 
"Tell  them,"  said  General  Wood,  "that  they  should  get 
together  and  build  a  good  schoolhouse.  They  would 
have  the  honour  of  constructing  the  first  one  in  Cuba." 

But  the  mayor  and  council  were  silent — schoolhouses 
did  not  interest  them.  They  discussed  the  new  water 
works  system  on  which  the  Americans  were  spending 
$100,000;  and  they  wanted  a  stable  for  the  horses 
of  the  rural  guard,  a  subject  which  the  Governor  referred 
to  the  local  American  commandant  for  investigation. 

"Tell  them,"  said  General  Wood,  "that  I  haven't 
heard  any  complaints  from  here,"  at  which  compliment 
the  council  nodded  in  deep  appreciation,  and  the  mayor 
even  smiled. 

"They  wish  to  thank  you,"  said  the  interpreter, 
"for  the  interest  which  you  take  in  the  town,"  and 
then  it  was  the  Governor's  turn  to  bow  graciously. 
The  immediate  business  being  now  completed,  the 
Governor  shook  hands  all  around,  addressing  those 
about  him  readily  in  Spanish.  And  with  this  the 
conference  ended. 

That  the  American  occupation  was  so  singu 
larly  devoid  of  disorder  was  principally  due  to 


Governor  of  Cuba  119 

Wood's  ability  to  gauge  the  temper  and  character 
of  the  Cuban  people.  During  the  first  months 
of  the  American  occupation  the  Cubans  were 
especially  bitter  in  their  hatred  toward  the  Span 
ish,  and  prisoners  of  war  had  to  be  closely  guarded 
from  a  certain  element  among  the  native  soldiers. 
After  the  evacuation  of  the  Spanish  troops,  several 
clashes  occurred  between  Cuban  and  Spanish 
civilians,  none  of  them  serious. 

The  following  story  illustrates  Wood's  method 
of  dealing  with  outbreaks  of  this  sort. 

The  General  was  writing  at  his  desk  in  the 
Palace  in  Santiago  one  night.  At  the  entrance 
stood  a  lone  American  sentry  armed  with  a  rifle. 
The  soldier  observed  a  gathering  of  men  in  the 
Plaza  across  from  the  San  Carlos  Club,  the  mem 
bership  of  which  was  almost  exclusively  Spanish. 
As  the  people  seemed  quiet  and  there  were  no 
restrictions  placed  on  public  meetings,  the  sentry 
paid  no  special  attention  to  the  crowd  until  sud 
denly  it  surged  toward  the  club.  In  an  instant 
the  crowd  had  become  a  yelling  mob  which  now 
began  throwing  stones,  bricks,  and  other  missiles 
against  the  club  windows  and  doors. 

General  Wood  was  working  calmly  at  his  desk 
when  the  sentry  entered  to  report  the  disturb 
ance. 

"I  know  it,"  said  General  Wood  without  looking 


120  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

up  from  his  papers.  "I  have  heard  the  row. 
We'll  go  right  over  and  stop  it." 

Then,  without  any  haste  or  excitement,  he  picked 
up  his  riding  crop — the  only  weapon,  by  the  way, 
that  he  ever  carried — and  accompanied  by  the 
one  American  soldier,  he  walked  across  the  street. 
They  pushed  their  way  through  the  mob  until 
they  came  to  the  club's  main  entrance  where 
several  men  were  trying  to  force  the  door. 

"Now  shove  them  back,  sentry,"  said  Wood, 
calmly. 

The  soldier  swung  his  rifle  around,  bruising  a 
few  obstreperous  Cubans,  and  in  less  than  a  minute 
a  space  was  cleared  in  front  of  the  club. 

"Now  shoot  the  first  man  who  places  his  foot 
upon  that  step,"  said  the  General  in  Spanish,  rais 
ing  his  voice  so  that  the  mob  could  hear  his  order. 

Then  Wood  turned  and  walked  back  to  the 
Palace,  and  inside  of  a  few  minutes  the  crowd  had 
melted  away.  An  American  General,  armed 
with  a  riding  whip,  and  one  soldier,  carrying  a  rule, 
had  quelled  what  had  promised  to  develop  into  a 
bloody  riot,  and  not  a  shot  had  been  fired. 

Another  man  placed  in  Wood's  position  might 
have  called  for  troops,  and  the  attack  on  the  club 
might  have  turned  into  a  real  battle  between 
American  soldiers  and  Cuban  civilians.  Wood 
knew  the  people  he  was  dealing  with. 


Governor  of  Cuba  121 

At  another  time,  after  lie  had  sent  three  invita 
tions  to  a  Cuban  official  of  Spanish  blood  and  train 
ing  and  the  latter  had  failed  to  appear,  Wood 
despatched  a  squad  of  soldiers  to  bring  his  man, 
"and  I  want  you  to  bring  him  right  away,"  he  said. 
A  few  minutes  later  the  soldiers  carried  into  Gen 
eral  Wood's  office  the  official  clad  only  in  his 
pajamas.  Thereafter  he  always  appeared  promptly 
when  asked  to  come  to  the  General's  office. 

While  he  was  in  Santiago,  General  Wood  suf 
fered  greatly  from  malarial  fever.  One  night, 
when  he  had  gone  to  his  residence  in  the  outskirts 
of  the  city,  he  received  a  telephone  message  saying 
that  a  riot  had  occurred  at  San  Luis,  a  village 
about  twenty  miles  out  on  the  Santiago  railway. 
Wood  had  a  temperature  of  105,  and  he  was  so 
sick  and  dizzy  that  he  staggered  when  he  walked. 
Nevertheless,  he  drove  back  to  the  city,  summoned 
his  chief  signal  officer,  Captain  J.  E.  Brady,  and 
rushed  over  to  the  headquarters  of  the  Signal 
Corps,  where  Captain  Brady  sat  down  at  the 
telegraph  instrument  while  the  General  issued  his 
orders  summoning  members  of  the  Cuban  Rural 
Guard  and  the  officers  of  the  American  troops 
stationed  at  San  Luis.  He  spent  three  hours 
issuing  orders,  questioning  and  investigating  the 
cause  of  the  riot.  He  was  so  ill  that  his  officers 
begged  him  to  go  home,  but  Wood  stuck  till  he  had 


The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

finished  his  preliminary  investigation.  The  fol 
lowing  day,  still  racked  with  fever,  he  went  to  San 
Luis  to  complete  his  inquiry. 

We  have  touched  on  the  bitterness  displayed 
by  the  Cubans  for  the  Spanish  residents  of  the 
island,  a  bitterness  somewhat  akin  to  that  which 
raged  in  the  hearts  of  our  own  revolutionists 
against  the  British  loyalists  of  the  United  States 
at  the  close  of  our  War  of  Independence.  We 
know  how  long  it  has  taken  for  this  nation  to  for 
get  the  scars  of  its  wounds  received  in  wars  with 
Britain,  and  we  therefore  can  better  understand 
the  feelings  of  the  native  Cubans.  In  many  cases 
civil  wars  and  wars  between  people  of  kindred 
blood  ties  are  the  cruelest  and  engender  the  worst 
after  effects. 

Cuba  had  a  large  population  of  Spanish  birth, 
and  it  became  one  of  Wood's  many  duties  to  act 
as  conciliator  between  the  native  and  Spanish 
elements.  This  work  he  undertook  the  more 
willingly  as  the  bravery  and  gallantry  of  the( 
Spanish  army  arid  navy,  fighting  against  over 
whelming  odds,  had  aroused  the  admiration  of  our 
people.  Here  Wood  displayed  the  talents  of  a  real 
diplomat. 

It  so  happened  that  the  inauguration  ball  given 
in  honour  of  President  Palma,  the  first  president 
of  the  Cuban  Republic,  and  the  members  of  the 


Governor  of  Cuba  123 

new  Cuban  Congress,  took  place  the  night  of  King 
Alfonso's  birthday,  so  there  were  two  celebrations 
in  Havana.  At  the  Spanish  Club  which  reeked  with 
memories  of  cruel  and  incompetent  military  dicta 
tors,  Spanish  loyalists  were  drinking  the  health  of 
their  young  monarch  about  the  time  that  President 
and  Senora  Palma  were  leading  the  grand  march 
in  the  state  palace. 

General  Wood  took  a  bold  course.  He  gathered 
the  principal  members  of  the  new  Congress  and 
took  them  over  to  the  Spanish  Club,  where  Cuban 
officials,  Spaniards  and  American  officers  toasted 
King  Alfonso  and  fraternized  with  true  Latin 
enthusiasm.  The  President  of  the  Club  and  the 
leading  members  of  the  Spanish  community  then 
joined  Wood  and  his  party  and  went  to  the  in 
augural  ball,  where  they  drank  the  health  of  the 
Cuban  Republic.  It  is  difficult  to  overestimate 
the  significance  of  this  little  incident  in  creating 
better  feeling  between  Cuba  and  the  Spanish  na 
tion. 

Wood's  success  in  Cuba  was  largely  due  to  his 
genius  for  selecting  able  men  to  assist  him,  and 
letting  them  go  unhindered  about  their  work  as 
long  as  they  did  it  satisfactorily.  He  did  not  try 
to  do  everything  himself.  No  man  could  have 
succeeded  in  Wood's  novel  and  gigantic  task  who 
was  not  able  and  willing  to  trust  other  men.  He 


124  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

gave  Dr.  Alexis  Everett  Frye  and  Lieutenant 
Matthew  E.  Hanna  a  free  rein  in  building  up 
Cuba's  system  of  education.  He  drew  on  the 
ability  and  experience  of  E.  R.  Olcott,  General 
Grenville  M.  Dodge  and  Sir  William  Van  Horn 
to  assist  him  in  rewriting  Cuba's  railway  laws  and 
building  much  of  the  present  railway  system  of  the 
island.  He  backed  Major  Walter  Reed  when  the 
latter  came  to  him  for  money  and  authority  to 
make  his  final  experiments  which  resulted  in  the 
conquest  of  yellow  fever.  He  selected  or  helped 
select  scores  of  Cubans,  many  of  them  men  of 
exceptional  ability,  to  head  the  various  depart 
ments  of  the  government. 

Acting  in  behalf  of  the  United  States  Govern 
ment,  the  Governor-General  officially  turned  over 
the  island  of  Cuba  to  the  Cuban  Republic  on 
May  20,  1902.  The  occasion  was  marked  by 
impressive  ceremony.  Shortly  before  noon,  Wood 
read  the  document  of  transfer  in  the  Government 
Palace,  Havana.  President  Palma  responded. 
At  twelve  o'clock,  noon,  a  detachment  of  the 
Seventh  United  States  Cavalry  lowered  the  Ameri 
can  flag  amid  the  thunder  of  saluting  guns,  and 
the  Cuban  banner  was  raised  where  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  had  been  flying  throughout  the  occupation. 
About  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  people 
witnessed  the  birth  of  the  Cuban  Republic.  Im- 


Governor  of  Cuba  125 

mediately  following  the  transfer  Wood  went 
aboard  a  ship  which  carried  him  to  the  United 
States.  His  work  in  Cuba  was  finished.  Gover 
nor  General  Wood  stepped  out  of  an  office  which 
commanded  world-wide  attention  and  became 
Brigadier  General  Leonard  Wood,  U.  S.  A.,  unas- 
signed. 

Some  time  after  Wood  had  departed  from  Cuba, 
Lord  Cromer  who  was  retiring  as  Consul  General 
of  Egypt,  was  discussing  with  some  Englishmen 
the  choice  of  his  successor.  "Unfortunately  the 
best  man  for  the  post  is  not  available,"  said  Lord 
Cromer.  "He  is  an  American,  General  Leonard 
Wood." 

Wood's  Cuban  administration  was  marred  by 
only  one  unpleasant  incident,  the  so-called  Rath- 
bone  affair.  Major  Estes  G.  Rathbone,  formerly 
Assistant  Postmaster  General,  was  Director-Gen 
eral  of  Posts  in  Cuba.  He  was  charged  with 
wastefulness  of  public  funds,  and  unwarranted  ex 
penditure  of  public  money  for  personal  use,  and 
together  with  some  of  his  associates,  was  brought  to 
trial,  convicted,  and  sent  to  jail. 

The  whole  case  should  have  ended  there,  but 
Rathbone  had  powerful  friends,  and  one  friend 
in  particular  of  the  two-fisted,  fighting  sort.  This 
was  Senator  Marcus  A.  Hanna  of  Ohio,  then  in 
the  height  of  his  political  power  as  Republican 


126  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

leader  of  the  Upper  House.  Rathbone  was  ar 
rested  in  Havana  on  July  28,  1900,  about  seven 
months  after  Wood  had  taken  office  as  Governor 
General.  Wood  had  hardly  had  time  to  establish 
himself  firmly  in  his  position.  He  owed  his  ap 
pointment  to  a  Republican  administration  of 
which  Hanna  was  reputed  to  be  the  actual,  if  not 
the  titular  leader.  Rathbone  had  been  Hanna's 
political  supporter  and  friend;  and  whatever  his 
faults  (and  his  enemies  were  never  timid  about 
enumerating  them)  Hanna's  foes  could  never 
accuse  him  of  ingratitude.  He  was  a  man  of 
generous  impulses,  just  the  sort  of  a  man  who 
would  fight  for  an  old  friend  whether  the  latter 
were  riding  on  the  crest  of  fortune  or  on  his  way  to 
prison. 

After  Secretary  of  War  Root  had  appointed  him 
Governor  of  Cuba,  General  Wood  had  gone  to 
Washington  to  confer  with  Mr.  Root.  He  had 
called  on  President  McKinley  who  greeted  him  by 
saying: 

"What  can  I  do  for  you,  General  Wood?" 

"Only  this,  give  me  your  full  support  as  long  as 
you  can  trust  me,  and  when  you  cannot  do  this, 
get  rid  of  me." 

If  President  McKinley  had  not  trusted  Wood, 
this  was  the  time  to  remove  him  from  office,  for 
not  only  Hanna  but  also  other  influential  politi- 


Governor  of  Cuba  127 

cians  from  the  President's  own  state  were  fighting 
the  Governor  of  Cuba.  They  claimed  that  Rath- 
bone  had  been  unjustly  accused  and  "railroaded" 
in  the  courts  through  the  direct  agency  of  Gov 
ernor-General  Wood,  while  the  latter  was  himself 
guilty  of  extravagance  in  office  and  of  accepting 
presents  from  a  gambling  house  in  Havana.  He 
was  accused  of  interfering  improperly  with  the 
Cuban  judiciary  in  the  Rathbone  case. 

Wood  saw  President  McKinley  and  asked  to  be 
relieved  in  case  the  President  was  dissatisfied. 

"I  wouldn't  want  you  to  persecute  Rathbone," 
said  the  President,  "but  if  you  prosecute  him  I'll 
support  you." 

The  Rathbone  case  dragged  on  through  the 
courts  accumulating  fresh  complications  at  every 
turn  and  it  was  not  until  March  24,  1902,  that  he 
was  sentenced.  A  few  months  later  he  was  par 
doned  by  a  general  amnesty  of  the  Cuban  gov 
ernment. 

The  fight  on  Wood  resulting  from  the  Rathbone 
prosecution  continued  until  long  after  the  former 
Director -General  of  Posts  of  Cuba  had  been 
pardoned.  This  fight  eventually  crystallized  into 
formal  charges  filed  with  the  Senate  Military 
Affairs  Committee.  Wood  had  been  recommended 
for  promotion  to  the  rank  of  Major-General  in  the 
regular  army,  and  Rathbone's  friends  endeavored 


128  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

to  block  the  confirmation.  But  the  Senate 
Committee  on  Military  Affairs  confirmed  the  pro 
motion  of  Wood  as  Major-General.  In  its  report 
the  Committee  disposed  of  the  talk  that  other 
Spanish-American  War  officers  had  been  slighted 
while  Wood  had  received  more  than  his  due  share 
by  saying:  "Not  one  of  them  has  a  better  claim, 
by  reason  of  his  past  record  and  experience  as  a 
commander,  than  has  General  Wood;  and  in  the 
opinion  of  the  Committee  no  one  has,  in  view  of 
his  present  rank,  equal  claim  to  his  [Wood's]  on 
the  ground  of  merit  measured  by  the  considera 
tions  suggested." 

It  was  true  that  at  one  time  he  was  only  a  regi 
mental  doctor,  but  this  fact  did  not  mar  his 
military  record,  which  spoke  for  itself.  He  had 
won  the  Congressional  Medal  of  Honour  for 
courage  and  devotion  to  duty  in  the  campaign 
against  the  Apaches.  General  Miles  and  General 
Lawton  had  cited  him  for  his  conduct  in  the 
campaign.  Wood  had  no  pull  with  either  of  these 
officers  at  the  time  he  joined  the  army  as  a  con 
tract  surgeon,  nor  with  Cleveland  or  McKinley 
until  he  proved  his  character  and  ability  to  these 
presidents  from  opposing  parties. 

Generals  Wheeler,  Shafter,  Young,  and  other 
high  army  officers  of  the  Spanish-American  War 
did  not  agree  with  Wood's  accusers  that  he  had 


Governor  of  Cuba  129 

"performed  no  military  service  of  distinctive  or 
special  merit  in  the  Cuban  campaign."  Wheeler 
had  cited  him  for  his  courage  and  skill  in  the 
Battle  of  Las  Guasimas.  Shafter  had  recom 
mended  him  for  promotion  as  Brigadier-General, 
and  had  later  appointed  him  Military  Governor  of 
Santiago.  Young  had  commended  his  "magni 
ficent  behaviour  in  the  field."  The  Secretary  of 
War,  Elihu  Root,  testified  before  the  Committee 
that  he  had  appointed  Wood  Governor-General 
solely  on  his  official  record  and  without  consulting 
President  McKinley. 

While  in  Cuba,  Wood  became  an  enthusiastic 
player  of  the  Spanish  game  known  as  "  Jai  Alai," 
resembling  racquets,  and  affording  excellent  physi 
cal  exercise.  When  he  was  about  to  leave  the 
island,  Wood  was  presented  with  a  beautiful  silver 
service  by  prominent  Cubans  known  to  him  as 
"Jai  Alai,"  players  and  fans.  Secretary  Root 
told  the  Senate  Committee  that  "to  have  refused 
this  and  other  gifts  made  at  the  same  time  would 
have  been  discourteous,  injurious,  and  unjusti 
fiable."  The  fact  that  some  Cubans  placed  bets 
on  "Jai  Alai,"  just  as  Americans  have  been  known 
to  hazard  money  on  such  purely  amateur  sports  as 
football  games,  gave  Wood's  enemies  a  peg  on  which 
to  hang  the  false  charge  that  he  was  the  patron  and 
friend  of  a  gambling  institution.  Secretary  Root 


130  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

further  testified  that  President  McKinley  had 
first  picked  out  Wood  for  promotion  to  the  rank  of 
Major-General  and  that  President  Roosevelt  on 
succeeding  to  the  office  of  Chief  Executive  would 
have  been  compelled  "to  put  him  out  of  that  rank 
and  dissent  from  the  judgment  of  President  Mc- 
Kinley  if  he  had  failed  to  nominate  him." 

The  Rathbone  case  is  dead  and  buried  these 
many  years,  but  to-day  Daniel  R.  Hanna,  the  son 
of  the  late  Senator  Hanna,  is  supporting  the 
candidacy  of  General  Wood  for  nomination  for  the 
Presidency  by  the  Republican  party. 

Leonard  Wood's  Cuban  administration  is  unique 
in  the  annals  of  colonial  history.  The  simple  and 
incontrovertible  fact  is  that  nothing  like  it  has 
ever  been  accomplished.  Cuba  was  one  of  the  most 
tragic  spectacles  among  the  nations  of  the  world 
when  the  Americans  came  to  her  rescue.  Years  of 
revolutionary  struggles,  crushed  by  brute  force 
only  to  break  forth  again,  had  bankrupted  the 
island,  exiled  its  leaders  and  exhausted  the  energy 
of  the  people.  Cuba  in  her  struggle  for  freedom 
was  so  far  spent  that  even  the  family  structure  was 
beginning  to  crumble.  Such  was  the  Cuba  that 
Leonard  Wood,  a  self-taught  statesman,  a  self- 
trained  executive,  a  self-made  business  man,  built 
into  a  prosperous  state  in  two  years  and  a  half. 

Modern  history  offers  instances  of  great  service 


Governor  of  Cuba  131 

performed  by  statesmen  and  private  individuals 
for  nations,  but  in  each  case  the  nation  in  question 
has  been  "a  going  concern"  with  something  on 
which  to  build.  Cuba  was  not  "a  going  concern." 
There  was  no  governmental  machinery  on  which  to 
build,  and  Wood  was  alone.  He  had  to  build  his 
machinery  and  select  his  staff.  Cuba  was  bank 
rupt.  In  two  years  and  a  half  he  raised  and  spent 
more  than  $58,000,000.  He  left  Cuba  with  more 
than  half  a  million  in  the  treasury. 

General  Wood  received  no  great  material  reward 
for  his  Cuban  labours,  but  he  reaped  the  richest 
harvest  which  a  man  of  his  type  could  desire,  the 
gratitude  of  the  Cuban  people  and  the  high  respect 
of  all  thoughtful  and  liberal-minded  men  who  had 
followed  his  painstaking  labours.  When  the 
island  of  Cuba  was  transferred  to  the  newly  es 
tablished  Republic,  President  Palma  in  his  formal 
address  to  General  W'ood  said: 

"I  understand  that,  as  far  as  possible,  all 
pecuniary  responsibilities  contracted  by  the  Mili 
tary  Government  up  to  this  date  have  been  paid; 
that  $100,000  or  such  portion  thereof  as  may  be 
necessary,  has  been  set  aside  to  cover  the  expenses 
that  may  be  occasioned  by  the  liquidation  and 
finishing  up  the  obligations  contracted  by  said 
government;  and  that  there  has  been  transferred 
to  the  Government  of  the  Republic  the  sum  of 


132  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

$689,191.02,  which  constitutes  the  cash  balance 
existing  to-day  in  favour  of  the  State. 

"I  take  this  solemn  occasion,  which  marks  the 
fulfillment  of  the  honoured  promise  of  the  Govern 
ment  and  people  of  the  United  States  in  regard  to 
the  island  of  Cuba,  and  in  which  our  country  is 
made  a  ruling  nation,  to  express  to  you,  the  worthy 
representative  of  that  grand  people,  the  immense 
gratitude  which  the  people  of  Cuba  feel  toward  the 
American  nation,  toward  its  illustrious  President, 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  and  toward  you  for  the  efforts 
you  have  put  forth  for  the  successful  accomplish 
ments  of  such  a  precious  ideal." 

Wood  was  showered  with  congratulatory  mes 
sages  from  the  most  prominent  men  of  the  nation 
on  the  success  of  his  work,  the  most  remarkable  of 
which  may  be  found  in  the  official  archives  of  the 
War  Department.  General  Orders  No.  38,  dated 
March  25,  1903,  issued  by  Secretary  of  War  Root, 
relieving  General  Wood  "from  further  duty  in  con 
nection  with  the  affairs  of  the  Military  Government 
of  Cuba,"  reads  in  part  as  follows: 

Out  of  an  utterly  prostrate  colony  a  free  republic 
was  built  up,  the  work  being  done  with  such  signal 
ability,  integrity,  and  success  that  the  new  nation  started 
under  more  favourable  conditions  than  has  ever 
before  been  the  case  in  any  single  instance  among  her 
fellow  Spanish-American  republics.  This  record  stands 


Governor  of  Cuba  133 

alone  in  history,  and  the  benefit  conferred  thereby  on 
the  people  of  Cuba  was  no  greater  than  the  honour 
conferred  upon  the  people  of  the  United  States. 

Richard  Olney,  Cleveland's  Secretary  of  State, 
sent  him  this  message: 

I  congratulate  you  personally  on  the  most  successful 
and  deservedly  successful  career,  whether  as  soldier  or 
public  man  of  any  sort,  that  the  Spanish  War  and  its 
consequences  have  brought  to  the  front. 

John  Hay,  Secretary  of  State  during  Roosevelt's 
administration,  wrote  Wood  a  note  "with  sincere 
congratulations  on  the  approaching  fruition  of  all 
your  splendid  work  for  the  regeneration  of  Cuba," 
and  Senator  Platt,  of  Connecticut,  wrote  of  his 
"admiration  for  your  administration  under  diffi 
culties  greater,  I  think,  than  have  ever  had  to  be  en 
countered  by  any  one  man  in  reconstruction  work." 

"  Could  any  other  nation  have  done  what  we  did 
for  Cuba?"  General  Wood  was  once  asked. 

"Yes,  Great  Britain,"  he  answered,  "but 
Britain's  cost  in  lives  and  money  would  have  been 
greater."  Then,  after  a  pause,  he  added  with  a 
smile,  "And  Britain  might  have  stayed  longer." 

After  he  left  Cuba,  Wood  was  made  a  member  of 
a  military  commission  which  was  sent  to  Europe  to 


134  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

attend  the  German  maneuvers.  The  American 
Commission  included  Generals  H.  C.  Corbin  and 
S.  B.  M.  Young.  Having  shortly  before  finished 
his  administration  in  Cuba,  which  had  given  him 
world-wide  recognition,  Wood  naturally  received 
a  great  deal  of  attention  among  the  high  military 
officials  of  all  the  nations  who  gathered  to  ob 
serve  the  German  war  game.  The  American 
officers  met  the  British  mission  headed  by  Lord 
Roberts  and  including  General  John  French,  who 
was  later  to  become  famous  in  the  World  War. 
Kaiser  Wilhelm,  then  riding  toward  the  height 
of  his  glory,  was  especially  attentive  to  the  Ameri 
can  representatives. 


VII 

PACIFIER  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES 

IT  IS  said  that  when  Henry  Morton  Stanley 
returned  to  the  office  of  the  New  York  Herald  after 
winning  world-wide  fame  by  finding  Livingston 
in  the  wilds  of  Africa,  he  was  assigned  to  report 
a  police  court  case  of  minor  importance.  It  was  an 
assignment  of  the  sort  that  "Cub"  reporters  are 
given  to  sharpen  their  journalistic  teeth.  Stan 
ley,  a  veteran  journalist  and  one  of  the  world's 
foremost  explorers,  was  deeply  offended. 

When  Leonard  Wood  had  finished  his  Cuban 
administration,  he  was,  like  Stanley,  a  man  of 
international  reputation  without  an  assignment. 
His  rank  was  that  of  Brigadier-General  of  the 
regular  army.  But  what  job  was  there  for  a 
Brigadier-General  to  perform  commensurate  in 
importance  and  dignity  with  that  of  establishing 
a  whole  country  like  Cuba  in  business?  He  wrote 
the  final  report  of  his  administration;  he  went  to 
Europe  as  formerly  mentioned  to  witness  the 
German  maneuvers,  and  when  he  came  back  he  was 
still  without  an  assignment. 

135 


136  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

One  day  President  Roosevelt  was  telling  Wood 
of  his  troubles  in  the  Philippines  where  a  civil 
government  had  been  established,  but  where 
the  natives  in  some  sections,  notably  in  the  Moro 
provinces  of  the  island  of  Mindanao,  were  not 
inclined  to  be  very  civil.  William  Howard  Taft 
was  Governor-General  and  was  making  a  great 
success  of  his  administration  except  for  the  fact 
that  the  Moros  were  "cutting  up"  as  usual.  The 
President  remarked  that  he  would  have  to  send 
someone  on  the  difficult  and  dangerous  errand  of 
pacifying  the  Moros,  who  were  mostly  Mohamme 
dans  and  who  had  never  in  their  history,  so  far  as 
anybody  knew,  behaved  themselves  properly. 

"Well,  why  don't  you  send  me?"  asked  Wood. 

It  was  worse,  if  anything,  than  Stanley's  re 
ported  police  court  assignment.  It  was  a  highly 
dangerous  and  mean  job  with  little  glory  at 
tached  and  all  the  discomforts  of  the  tropical 
jungle  assured.  It  was  another  Apache  job  with 
scores  of  thousands  of  fanatical  Moros  and  other 
Filipinos  substituted  for  the  desperadoes  of  Ge- 
ronimo's  band.  And  yet  Wood  asked  for  it. 
Having  boiled  the  Cuban  fever  out  of  his  bones, 
be  had  become  accustomed,  presumably,  to  a  few 
creature  comforts.  He  had  won  great  honours 
as  administrator,  and  yet  he  was  willing  to  under 
take  the  humble  task  of  policing  the  most  unruly 


Pacifier  of  the  Philippines  137 

section  of  the  Philippines.  The  work  called  for 
subjugating  and  taming  the  little  brown  men  of  the 
Moro  country  and  the  waters  adjacent,  for  they 
were  amphibious  in  their  lawlessness.  They  were 
raiders  by  land  and  pirates  by  sea.  They  gloried 
in  their  defiance  of  Uncle  Sam's  law  and  order. 
They  were  head  hunters,  slave  traders.  They 
practised  polygamy,  and  despised  all  persons 
whose  skin  was  white.  Why  not  send  some  young 
colonel  or  captain  down  there  to  bake  under  the 
equatorial  sun,  to  round  up  the  Moros,  spank  the 
naughtiness  out  of  them,  and  sharpen  his  own 
military  fangs? 

But  Roosevelt  regarded  the  work  to  be  done  ia 
the  Moro  country  as  far  more  important  than  a 
mere  police  job.  He  wanted  the  seeds  of  civiliza 
tion  planted  in  the  minds  of  these  people.  He 
wanted  the  job  well  done  so  that  it  would  not  have 
to  be  done  over  again.  So  he  sent  Wood  over  to  the 
War  Department  to  see  Secretary  of  War  Root 
with  the  result  that  the  former  Cuban  ruler  be 
came  military  commander  and  civil  governor  of 
the  Moro  country. 

His  jurisdiction  covered  the  island  of  Mindanao, 
the  second  largest  in  the  Philippine  group,  more  than 
36,000  square  miles  in  area,  and  also  the  Sulu  group 
and  other  islands  in  the  southern  part  of  the  archi 
pelago.  There  were  about  twenty  different  tribes 


138  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

in  this  territory,  speaking  different  dialects. 
Most  of  them  kept  up  intermittent  fighting  against 
each  other,  and  all  were  ready  to  join  forces  against 
any  foreigner.  The  population  consisted  of  about 
50,000  Christian  Filipinos,  250,000  Mohammedan 
Moros,  and  some  300,000  other  natives  of  different 
religious  professions  ranging  from  Confucianism  to 
plain  paganism. 

General  Wood  took  the  eastern  route  to  the 
Philippines.  During  his  term  of  office  in  Cuba, 
he  had  kept  closely  in  touch  with  the  developments 
of  Dutch  and  British  colonial  administrative  work, 
,and  he  wanted  to  visit  some  of  the  colonies  of  these 
Powers.  He  stopped  in  Egypt  where  he  was  the 
guest  of  Lord  Cromer,  the  Consul-General,  who  had 
often  expressed  his  admiration  for  Wood's  work  in 
Cuba,  saying  that  his  administration  was  the 
finest  in  modern  colonial  history.  After  a  brief 
tour  of  Egypt,  Wood  proceeded  to  India,  Ceylon, 
and  the  Straits  Settlements  to  make  further  in 
vestigations  into  the  subject  of  colonial  adminis 
tration.  He  accepted  an  invitation  of  the  Dutch 
Government  to  visit  Java,  whose  native  popula 
tion  resembles  closely  the  people  of  the  Philippines. 
In  the  course  of  this  journey  Wood  talked  not  only 
with  the  most  enlightened  and  successful  colonial 
administrators  but  went  out  among  the  natives 
and  questioned  them  about  their  problems.  In  an 


Pacifier  of  ike  Philippines  139 

article  published  in  the  World's  Work,  Robert 
Hammond  Murray  states  that  Wood  collected 
case  after  case  of  books  and  statistics  during  this 
trip.  After  he  had  settled  in  Manila,  Wood 
received  a  visit  from  a  friend  whom  he  took  into 
his  library.  The  walls  were  covered  with  reports 
on  colonial  government. 

"I  have  gathered  these  since  I  came  out  here," 
remarked  the  General. 

"It's  a  fine  collection.  When  do  you  expect  to 
find  time  to  read  them?" 

"  Read  them ! "  replied  Wood.  "  I  have  already 
read  every  line  in  every  one  of  them.  They  have 
helped  me  a  lot." 

Wood  arrived  in  the  Philippines  in  July,  1903, 
under  a  cloud  of  suspicion  and  hostility.  During 
his  first  few  weeks  in  the  islands  there  was  no 
American  army  officer  in  the  Far  East  more  un 
popular. 

He  was  still  under  charges  pending  before  the 
Senate  Military  Affairs  Committee,  referred  to  in 
the  preceding  chapter.  That  was  bad  enough. 
But  after  all,  many  able  army  officers  have  to  face 
charges  of  some  sort  in  their  careers.  The  army 
officers  in  the  Philippines  cared  not  so  much  for 
the  official  charges  against  Wood.  He  had  neither 
been  tried  nor  convicted.  What  they  did  care 
about  was  the  charges  behind  the  charges.  Wood 


140  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

had  not  been  tried  by  the  Senate  Committee,  but 
he  had  been  tried  by  the  newspapers  and  accused 
of  being  an  administration  pet,  and  these  press 
reports  had  reached  the  Philippines.  Evidently 
some  of  the  papers  accusing  Wood  of  being  Roose 
velt's  favourite  pro-consul  had  forgotten  that  this 
man  in  the  summer  of  1900,  while  still  in  the  pro 
bationary  stage  of  his  Cuban  administration,  had 
locked  horns  with  Mark  Hanna,  the  most  powerful 
man  in  the  McKinley  administration. 

And  there  was  another  reason  for  the  hostility 
against  Wood.  He  was  not  a  West  Pointer,  not 
of  the  inner  circle.  There  was  a  distinct  tendency 
among  the  young  and  old  graduates  of  the  Military 
Academy  to  look  askance  upon  a  man  who  had 
entered  the  army  as  a  surgeon  and  had  gained  such 
rapid  promotion. 

Wood  spent  a  week  in  Manila  where  Taft  gave 
him  every  opportunity  to  become  acquainted  with 
conditions  in  the  islands.  Then  he  left  for 
Mindanao. 

In  Mindanao  General  Wood  proved  a  distinct 
surprise  to  his  critics.  The  American  officers 
found  that  the  WThite  House  judgment  on  this  quiet, 
middle-aged  man  with  the  weather-beaten  face 
and  the  body  of  a  hardened  trooper  was  correct. 
He  fell  right  into  the  swing  of  his  Indian  fighting 
habits,  and  before  he  had  been  long  hi  Mindanao 


Pacifier  of  the  Philippines  141 

his  officers  had  discovered  his  qualities  of  leader 
ship.  He  knew  how  to  lead,  issue  commands, 
direct.  He  demanded  no  physical  comforts  which 
his  subordinates  could  not  share.  He  showed  calm 
judgment  in  handling  the  perplexing  problems  of 
the  native  population. 

The  taming  of  the  Moros  was  a  slow,  tedious 
business,  highly  dangerous,  requiring  infinite 
patience  and  tact  in  dealing  with  the  native 
rulers  and  the  suspicious  Moslem  population. 
The  former  feared  the  loss  of  power  and  the  latter 
were  inflamed  against  the  Americans  by  their 
chiefs  and  other  religious  leaders  who  declared  that 
the  foreigners  desired  to  destroy  their  faith. 
Wood  sent  native  couriers  throughout  the  province 
proclaiming  to  the  population  that  the  Americans 
would  not  interfere  with  the  social  or  religious 
habits  of  any  one,  but  that  piracy,  brigandage, 
murder,  and  slavery  must  cease  at  once,  and  that 
the  armies  of  the  United  States  would  never  with 
draw  until  such  lawlessness  came  to  an  end.  He 
received  in  reply  scores  of  messages  from  tribal 
chieftains — rajahs,  maharajahs,  sultans,  and  datos 
— that  the  General's  word  was  law;  and  right  on 
the  heels  of  these  conciliatory  pledges  would  come 
reports  of  piracy  raids  along  the  coast  of  Borneo, 
or  of  the  capture  of  a  score  of  friendly  Filipinos 
by  some  Mohammedan  slave  trader. 


142  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

It  took  Wood  more  than  two  years  to  wipe  out 
human  slavery  and  piracy  in  Mindanao  and  the 
Sulu  Islands,  patch  up  the  age-old  feuds  between 
the  various  tribes,  and  restore  friendly  intercourse 
between  factions  which  had  been  fighting  each 
other  as  far  back  as  the  tribal  traditions  went. 
It  took  a  vast  amount  of  patient  work  to  teach 
these  people  the  simplest  kindergarten  principles 
of  government  and  trade  relationship.  But  Wood 
managed  to  convince  the  people  in  the  uplands 
that  it  was  not  only  profitable  but  safe  for  them 
to  bring  their  produce  down  to  the  valleys  and  the 
coast  villages  to  sell  and  barter.  Hitherto  such 
procedure  had  been  unthinkable.  The  natives 
who  ventured  beyond  the  limits  of  their  tribal 
territory  had  been  robbed,  enslaved,  and  perhaps 
killed. 

There  was  a  good  deal  of  scattered  fighting, 
mostly  of  the  guerrilla  type.  But  all  the  cam 
paigns  called  for  more  of  physical  endurance 
and  watchfulness  than  actual  fighting.  Wood  led 
in  person  many  of  the  expeditions  against  ob 
streperous  slave  traders,  walking  for  miles  over  the 
floating  bogs  of  the  lake  country,  or  climbing 
mountain  ranges.  He  headed  an  expedition 
against  about  70,000  hostile  Moros  in  the  vicinity 
of  Lake  Lanao.  In  this  campaign  his  reputation 
for  personal  bravery  was  greatly  enhanced  among 


Pacifier  of  the  Philippines  143 

his  troops  through  an  incident  which  came  near 
costing  him  his  life. 

Wood's  party  was  proceeding  cautiously  along 
a  trail  over  a  jungle-covered  floating  bog.  The 
interpreter  of  the  party  stepped  into  the  tall  grass 
and  was  immediately  surrounded  by  hostile  Moros. 
Wood  was  the  first  man  to  reach  the  interpreter 
who  was  bravely  returning  the  fire  of  the  enemy. 
The  Moros  began  to  retreat  when  they  saw  Wood 
and  the  other  soldiers,  but  kept  on  firing.  The 
General  picked  up  a  rifle  and  fought  in  the  ranks 
with  his  men  until  the  hostile  party  had  fled, 
leaving  several  dead  and  wounded. 

The  principal  engagement  was  the  taking  of  the 
stronghold  of  Dalu  Ali,  one  of  the  most  influential 
of  the  Moro  chiefs.  It  did  not  amount  to  much 
as  a  military  contest.  However,  it  took  more  than 
two  years  to  run  Dalu  Ali  down,  and  his  power 
was  never  broken  till  he  was  killed  in  1905  in  an 
engagement  with  the  Americans  led  by  Captain 
Frank  R.  McCoy,  Wood's  aide-de-camp.  Ali  was 
notorious  throughout  the  southern  archipelago  as 
a  raider,  slave  dealer,  and  despot.  He  had  built 
himself  a  fort  in  the  Cottabato  Valley.  He  had 
about  2,000  Moro  warriors,  and  was  well  supplied 
with  arms  and  ammunition.  Ali's  men  terrorized 
the  neighbouring  country,  raiding  friendly  and 
peaceable  native  settlements. 


144  Ttie  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

The  job  of  digging  AlTout  of  his  stronghold  was 
exceptionally  arduous.  The  wily  chieftain  had 
built  his  fortress  within  a  network  of  lakes,  rivers, 
and  swamps.  Wood's  soldiers  declare  that  the 
General  took  a  hand  many  a  time  in  dragging 
fieldpieces  over  especially  difficult  spots  in  the 
swamps.  Dalu  Ali's  pretentious  establishment 
was  easily  destroyed  after  the  Americans  reached 
it.  His  band  was  annihilated,  but  the  chief, 
himself,  escaped.  Wood  kept  his  men  on  Ali's 
trail  until  the  latter  fell.  Ali's  death  broke  the 
resistance  of  the  Moros. 

The  change  of  sentiment  toward  Wood  among 
the  American  officers  in  the  Philippines  may  be 
indicated  by  the  following  statement  of  Colonel 
Duncan,  a  veteran  of  the  Philippine  wars: 

"Before  I  met  General  Wood  his  very  name  stirred 
indignation  in  me.  I  couldn't  help  feeling  that 
the  promotion  of  a  mere  doctor  over  the  heads 
of  so  many  experienced  and  deserving  officers  was 
an  outrage  on  the  service.  The  bill  which  made 
me  a  Colonel  made  him  a  Major-General,  yet  I 
was  so  bitterly  opposed  to  his  promotion  that  I 
was  willing  to  see  the  bill  defeated  and  lose  my 
colonelcy.  Afterward  I  served  under  him  in  the 
Philippines  and  I  found  him  to  be  one  of  the  big 
gest  men  I  had  ever  come  in  contact  with,  a  mag 
nificent  officer  with  a  remarkably  large  way  of 


Pacifier  of  the  Philippines  145 

looking  at  and  dealing  with  things.  He  is  a  great 
soldier." 

It  was  Wood's  ready,  even-handed  justice  to 
ward  everybody  under  his  command,  whether 
natives,  army  officers,  or  privates,  which  appealed 
to  the  men  who  served  under  him.  Wood  believed 
in  basing  promotions  on  merit  rather  than  on  the 
number  of  years  of  service.  He,  himself,  had  been 
promoted  over  the  heads  of  many  other  officers 
by  McKinley. 

To  a  young  officer  whom  General  Wood  had 
quickly  promoted  he  said : 

"You  have  been  a  captain  only  fifteen  or  twenty 
minutes  and  you're  mighty  young  to  be  a  major; 
but  you  have  earned  your  promotion.  Try  and 
bear  it  modestly.  There  are  lots  of  young  men  in 
the  army  who  are  as  good  as  you,  and  better,  per 
haps,  but  unfortunately  for  them  I  do  not  know 
them.  I  do  know  you.  If  you  hadn't  earned  it, 
you  wouldn't  have  got  it. 

"As  you  know,  I  believe  in  promotion  by  selec 
tion.  You  are  an  example.  Take  a  class  of  one 
hundred  young  men  who  have  graduated  in  law 
and  medicine.  Ten  of  them,  perhaps,  will  be  ex 
traordinarily  successful;  ten  will  make  a  great 
success;  ten  others  will  be  fairly  successful,  and  so 
on  down  the  line  until  you  come  to  the  fellows  who 
are  just  getting  on.  Why  should  young  men  in 


146  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

the  army  be  different?  Men  are  alike,  and  the 
young  men  in  the  army  resemble  the  rest  in  their 
qualities  and  the  degrees  of  their  attainments. 
Why  should  the  best  and  the  most  capable  be  held 
down  to  the  level  of  those  who  just  get  on,  who 
merely  do  enough  to  hold  their  commissions  by  a 
system  of  promotion  by  seniority?  It  robs  the 
army  of  incentive.  Competition  spurs  on  men, 
in  or  out  of  the  army." 

Because  of  their  close  friendship,  the  impression 
always  existed  in  the  public  mind  that  Wood 
owed  to  Roosevelt  his  rapid  rise  in  the  army.  John 
J.  Leary,  Jr.,  in  his  reminiscences  of  Roosevelt, 
published  in  McClure's  Magazine,  gives  Roose 
velt's  own  words  on  the  subject: 

One  thing  which  annoyed  Roosevelt  was  the  public's 
persistence  in  believing  that  it  was  to  him  that  General 
Leonard  Wood  owed  his  big  jump  in  the  army  and  to 
its  confounding  the  case  of  Wood  with  that  of  Pershing. 

"The  man  they  are  thinking  of,"  he  used  to  say, 
"is  Pershing.  It  was  he  I  jumped  over  the  heads  of 
several  hundred  other  army  officers.  I'd  do  it  again, 
by  thunder,  if  the  same  occasion  arose!  Wood  got  his 
big  jump  from  McKinley,  and  all  I  ever  gave  him  were 
the  promotions  due  him  in  the  usual  course  of  seniority. 
I've  tried  a  hundred  times  to  straighten  this  out  in  the 
public  mind,  but  I  don't  suppose  I'll  ever  succeed. 
The  public  seems  to  want  to  believe  this  myth. 

"President  McKinley  gave  Wood  his  big  jump  in  the 


Pacifier  of  ttie  Philippines  147 

regular  establishment,  after  he  took  him  out  of  the 
Rough  Riders.  I  gave  Pershing  his  big  jump  long  after 
I  had  succeeded  Mr.  McKinley  in  the  White  House.  .  .  . 

"Sims  of  the  navy,  another  man  I  was  accused  of 
favouring,  Mr.  Wilson  has  also  chosen  for  important 
work,  fairly  good  proof  that  my  judgment  of  these 
men  when  they  were  juniors  was  sound." 

"But  he  has  not  approved  of  Wood,"  I  suggested. 

"No,  he  has  not.  He  has  used  Wood  very  badly  and 
very  unfairly.  I  might  say  he  has  also  been  very 
foolish  in  the  way  he  has  handled  Wood. 

"If  he  wanted  to  sidetrack  him  he  could  have  done  it 
by  sending  him  to  Hawaii  or  the  Philippines  and  leaving 
him  there.  But  he  did  not  have  the  courage  to  do  this; 
he  adopted  half-way  measures  and  as  a  result  Wood 
has  been  like  a  sore  thumb  to  him — always  in  the  way 
and  doing  things  so  well  that  the  public  won't  allow 
Mr.  Wilson  to  forget  him. 

"  Wood  is  a  big  man  who  can  look  on  a  problem  from 
every  angle.  He  makes  few  mistakes,  but  he's  big 
enough,  when  he  makes  one,  to  admit  the  error, 
and  he  always  has  patience  with  the  other  fellow's 
opinion. 

"  I  am  very  fond  of  Wood,  and  I  know  he  is  of  me,  but 
in  my  years  in  the  presidency  Wood  never  took  any 
advantage  of  our  intimacy  or  in  the  slightest  degree 
presumed  on  our  friendship.  If  anything  he  leaned 
backward  hi  this  respect." 

While  he  was  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  General 
Wood  met  with  a  painful  accident  which  perma 
nently  impaired  his  left  leg.  He  has  walked  with  a 


148  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

decided  limp  ever  since,  but  his  general  health  has 
never  been  affected  by  his  injury. 

While  detachments  of  his  forces  were  engaged 
in  rounding  up  the  different  bands  of  outlaws  which 
made  Mindanao  province  unsafe,  Wood  lost  no 
chances  to  get  into  personal  touch  with  the  native 
rulers,  priests,  and  other  leaders  of  the  people  to 
whom  he  explained  the  mission  of  the  United 
States  in  the  Philippines.  He  found  the  majority 
of  the  people  tired  of  their  incessant  civil  wars  and 
anxious  for  peace.  Wood  acted  as  judge  hi  set 
tling  the  feuds  between  the  various  tribes.  He 
sought  out  the  strongest  Moslem  chieftains  and 
made  them  his  allies  in  restoring  peace  and  main 
taining  law  and  order.  The  Spaniards  had  ignored 
the  natural  leaders  and  as  a  result  the  ablest  men 
of  the  islands  were  always  arrayed  against  Spain. 

Wood  took  a  diametrically  opposite  course.  He 
squatted  cross-legged  in  the  tents  or  palaces  of  the 
rajahs,  tried  to  adjust  their  disputes  with  the  civil 
government  of  Mindanao,  and  offered  them  friend 
ship  and  posts  of  authority  in  their  districts  if 
they  would  maintain  order.  When  the  Moslem 
chiefs  quoted  their  Koran  to  prove  that  human 
slavery  was  permissible,  they  were  astounded  to 
hear  the  American  General  quote  another  verse  of 
the  Koran  advocating  human  freedom  and  simple 
justice  to  all  persons. 


Pacifier  of  the  Philippines  149 

"The  Prophet  has  said  that  a  man  may  have 
many  wives,"  said  one  turbaned  chief  with  a 
bejewelled  scimitar  in  his  belt.  "It  is  so  written 
in  the  Koran." 

"That  is  true,"  replied  the  General.  "I  have 
studied  the  Koran." 

This  reply  pleased  the  Moro  chief  greatly. 

"But  the  Prophet  has  said  it  would  be  better 
for  a  man  if  he  had  only  one  wife,"  added  the 
General.  "That  was  a  very  wise  and  true  say 
ing." 

Wood  could  not  destroy  the  institution  of 
plural  marriages  practised  under  the  guise  of 
religion,  but  he  made  no  compromise  on  the 
subject  of  slavery.  Here  the  Moro  leaders  had 
to  give  way  completely.  Slaves  were  released 
from  their  masters  wherever  American  soldiers 
found  them.  Wood's  stern  commands  to  the 
Moros  that  they  must  give  their  women  better 
treatment  was  also  heeded.  One  of  the  traditions 
which  Wood  had  to  uproot  was  the  Moros '  market 
valuation  of  human  life.  The  natives  from  time 
immemorial  had  been  accustomed  to  settle  for 
murder  by  payments  of  set  sums.  The  life  of  a 
freeman  was  worth  fifty-two  dollars  and  fifty 
cents;  that  of  a  freewoman,  twenty-six  dollars  and 
twenty -five  cents,  and  the  price  of  a  slave  killed 
was  about  twelve  dollars. 


150  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Wherever  he  found  it  possible,  Wood  established 
a  school  among  the  Moros,  and  by  the  time  he 
left  Mindanao,  numerous  Moro  children  were  be 
ing  taught  English  in  addition  to  their  own  dia 
lects.  Wood  divided  the  Moro  province  into  four 
districts,  Davao,  Lanao,  Cottabato,  and  Zambo- 
ango,  each  under  a  district  governor.  These 
districts  were  in  turn  divided  into  smaller  com 
munities  under  native  chiefs  who  were  commis 
sioned  to  represent  the  government. 

When  Wood  came  to  Mindanao  in  the  summer 
of  1903,  the  Moro  province  was  the  main  source 
of  trouble  in  the  Philippines,  the  sorest  spot 
on  our  map.  Human  slavery  flourished  and  the 
natives  were  compelled  to  obey  vicious  and  des 
potic  petty  rulers.  When  Wood  left  Mindanao 
in  April,  1906,  it  was  a  well-governed  section  of 
the  Philippines.  Wood  had  brought  peace  and 
prosperity  to  our  Moslem  wards  and  established 
confidence  in  our  institutions  and  respect  for  the 
United  States  in  the  hearts  of  the  natives.  He 
had  to  deal  with  more  than  a  score  of  tribes 
speaking  almost  as  many  dialects  and  professing 
all  sorts  of  religious  beliefs.  Wood  reached  them 
all  with  his  message  of  civilization.  The  ridicu 
lous  little  fortresses  of  mud  and  bamboo  over 
which  the  little  brown  men  fought  were  razed 
and  in  their  places  were  erected  schoolhouses. 


Pacifier  of  the  Philippines  151 

Once  more  Wood  had  succeeded  brilliantly  as  an 
administrator  largely  because  of  his  abundant  hu 
man  intuition. 

There  was  comparatively  little  of  bloodshed, 
but  none  of  the  Moros  who  fought  the  United 
States  were  inspired  by  patriotic  motives.  They 
were  fighting  to  perpetuate  their  institution  of 
slavery,  their  license  to  rob  on  the  high  seas  and 
raid  neighbouring  Filipino  tribes. 

Wood  was  transferred  from  Mindanao  to  take 
command  of  all  our  Philippine  military  forces 
numbering  about  twenty  thousand  troops.  Dur 
ing  the  two  years  he  commanded  the  Philippine 
Division  he  transformed  the  whole  defensive 
system  of  the  island,  making  it  more  secure.  In 
performing  this  work,  there  was  required  not  only 
military  acumen,  but  diplomatic  tact.  Our  rela 
tions  with  Japan  were  delicate  as  usual  and  any 
radical  changes  involving  preparedness  measures 
were  being  closely  watched  by  our  Oriental  neigh 
bours,  who  had  looked  with  anxiety  on  our  ap 
proach  toward  their  shores. 

In  the  training  of  our  Philippine  army,  Wood 
insisted  on  extensive  bayonet  practice.  The 
criticisms  he  encountered  for  thus  "wasting  the 
time"  of  his  soldiers  was  never  answered  until 
the  late  war  proved  that  fighting  with  cold  steel 
at  close  quarters,  while  an  unpleasant  feature 


152  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

of  warfare,  is  not  obsolete.  He  instituted  military 
athletic  meets  to  encourage  the  officers  and  men  to 
keep  physically  fit.  He  divided  the  year  into  two 
parts,  the  rainy  season  for  garrison  and  the  dry 
season  for  field  duty.  Just  before  he  left  Manila 
in  the  spring  of  1908,  he  was  the  guest  of  honour 
at  a  Filipino  banquet,  tne  first  military  commander 
in  the  Philippines  to  be  so  honoured. 

In  the  Far  East  his  name  came  to  be  linked  with 
that  of  Kitchener.  One  prominent  Englishman 
who  had  seen  a  good  deal  of  General  Wood  re 
marked  that  in  England  he  would  have  gone 
farther  than  Kitchener,  adding: 

"He  has  Kitchener's  soldierly  qualities  and 
genius  for  administration,  but  he  also  has  tact  and 
statesmanship." 


vni 

CHIEF-OF-STAFF  OF  THE  U.  S.  ARMY 

LEONARD  WOOD'S  career  falls  into  four 
distinct  periods  from  the  time  he  joined  the  army 
in  1885  to  the  present  time. 

First,  the  army  period  from  July,  1885,  to  July, 
1898. 

Second,  the  period  of  administration  and  states 
manship  from  July,  1898,  when  he  became  Military 
Governor  of  Santiago  de  Cuba  and  covering  the 
Cuban  and  Philippine  periods  to  May,  1908. 

Third,  the  prepare3nes3~period  from  May;  1908, 
to  Armistice  Day,  November  11,  1918. 

Fourth,  the  reconstruction  period,  from  Armis 
tice  Day  to  the  present  time,  covering  Wood's 
services  in  upholding  law  and  order,  his  fight  on  the 
destructive  radical  groups  of  the  country,  and  his 
campaign  in  behalf  of  constructive  Americanism 
and  justice  for  Labour. 

During  his  Cuban  administration,  Wood  had 
been  afforded  glimpses  of  world  politics  as  ex 
pressed  in  trade  rivalries  of  European  powers  in 

153 


154  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

the  West  Indies.  As  a  military  man  he  knew,  of 
course,  of  the  terrific  military  establishments 
under  which  Europe  was  staggering,  and  when  he 
witnessed  the  maneuvers  of  the  German  army  in 
1902,  he  became  convinced,  like  most  of  our  high 
army  officers,  that  where  there  was  so  much  war 
smoke  a  conflagration  was  likely  to  break  out 
at  almost  any  time.  He  was  to  receive  further 
confirmation  of  his  belief  when  in  1908  he  left  the 
Philippines. 

He  returned  by  the  way  of  Asia  and  Europe, 
and  stopped  in  Ceylon,  Singapore,  Egypt,  Malta, 
France,  Germany,  and  Switzerland.  But  this 
time  he  was  not  studying  colonial  administration 
so  much  as  military  systems.  He  spent  most  of 
the  summer  in  Switzerland.  Officially,  he  was  on 
leave  of  absence,  recuperating  from  five  years  in 
the  tropical  jungles  of  Moroland.  Unofficially, 
he  was  making  an  intensive  study  of  the  Swiss 
army  system.  When  he  established  the  military 
training  camps  for  college  students  in  1913  and 
later  the  Plattsburgh  camp,  he  did  not  improvise 
his  plans  on  the  spur  of  the  moment.  He  had 
been  planning  for  years  his  military  preparedness 
programme  to  suit  the  peculiar  needs  of  his  own 
country  which  he  knew  to  be  averse  to  militarism 
and  which  he  knew  could  never  become  militaris 
tic. 


Chief-of-Staff  of  the  U.  S.  Army      155 

While  he  was  in  Switzerland,  Austria-Hungary's 
time  for  liquidating  the  Dual  Monarchy's  obliga 
tions  with  reference  to  Bosnia-Herzegovina  ma 
tured.  Defying  Russia  and  the  Serb  states, 
Austria-Hungary  annexed  the  provinces.  Russia, 
the  memory  of  her  defeat  by  Japan  only  three 
years  old,  permitted  this  transgression  of  the 
Treaty  of  Berlin.  While  the  diplomats  were 
making  bold  gestures  in  every  capital  of  Europe, 
Germany's  army  staged  its  maneuvers  at  Saar- 
brucken,  ready  at  the  War  Lord's  command  to 
pounce  on  Europe.  The  army  of  France  was  on 
the  Loire,  poised  for  immediate  action.  Both  of 
these  tremendous  forces  Wood  had  the  opportunity 
to  study  at  field  practice.  Henry  White,  Ameri 
can  ambassador  to  France  at  the  time,  asked  him 
what  he  thought  of  the  French  Army. 

"Despite  the  fame  of  the  German  military 
machine,"  answered  Wood,  "France  in  the  next 
war  will  surprise  the  world  by  the  fighting  effect 
iveness  of  her  forces." 

This  conclusion  General  Wood  based  on  the 
relationship  between  the  officers  and  the  men  of 
the  French  Army.  He  has  always  been  a  pro 
found  believer  in  the  formula,  attributed  to 
Socrates,  that  the  first  duty  of  an  army  officer  is 
"to  look  after  the  welfare  of  his  men." 

He  found  that  the  French  officers  were  trained 


156  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

to  treat  their  men  with  consideration  and  to  look 
with  human  regard  after  their  needs.  He  disliked 
profoundly  the  brutal  and  arrogant  conduct  of 
the  German  officers  toward  the  common  soldiers, 
who,  while  being  treated  like  inferior  beings,  were 
commanded  to  fight  like  heroes. 

Throughout  the  French  maneuvers,  General 
Wood  was  attached  to  the  headquarters  of  one 
of  the  army  corps.  When  the  war  game  was 
over,  he  visited  Paris  where  he  was  presented  to  the 
President  of  the  Republic  and  other  high  French 
officials.  In  recognition  of  his  record  in  Cuba  and 
the  Philippines,  he  was  made  a  Grand  Officer  of 
the  Legion  of  Honour,  a  rank  which  in  those  days 
was  seldom  conferred  on  foreigners.  However, 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  withheld 
from  Wood  permission  to  accept  the  decoration, 
and  it  was  not  until  years  later  that  American 
officers  were  granted  the  privilege  in  a  general  order 
to  wear  foreign  medals. 

General  Wood  returned  to  the  United  States 
hi  the  fall  of  1908,  his  mind  filled  with  plans  for  a 
greater  and  more  difficult  campaign  than  he  had 
ever  conducted  in  the  field  or  in  administrative 
office — that  of  arousing  this  nation  to  a  sense  of  its 
insecurity  in  a  world  bristling  with  armaments, 
and  moving  the  soft  American  colossus  to  insure  its 
interests  by  reasonable  military  preparedness 


Chief-of-Staff  of  the  U.  8.  Army       157 

against  the  war  toward  which  Europe  was  headed. 
Science  was  annihilating  distance  and  Wood 
realized  that  America's  isolation  was  a  thing  of  the 
past.  The  United  States  as  a  world  power  was 
bound  to  be  seriously  affected  by  any  war  dis 
turbance  hi  Europe. 

On  his  arrival  in  this  country,  Wood  was  placed 
in  command  of  the  Department  of  the  East  with 
headquarters  on  Governor's  Island,  one  of  the 
most  important  commands  of  the  army  in  times  of 
peace.  He  had  been  a  general  officer  in  the 
United  States  Army  for  more  than  ten  years,  but 
never  during  that  time  had  he  held  a  command  at 
a  home  post.  In  fact,  he  had  never  held  any 
actual  command  in  this  country  except  for  a  little 
more  than  a  month  in  the  spring  of  1898  when  as 
colonel  of  the  Rough  Riders  he  was  enlisting  and 
training  his  regiment  in  Texas.  WTien  he  led 
detachments  of  troops  on  raids  after  the  Indians 
in  the  Apache  war,  he  had  merely  acted  as  a 
volunteer  line  officer  while  his  official  status  was 
that  of  a  medical  officer. 

When,  in  the  spring  of  1910,  General  Wood  was 
sent  as  special  ambassador  to  represent  the 
United  States  at  the  centenary  celebration  of  the 
Argentine  Republic,  he  received  fresh  assurances 
of  the  vital  need  of  preparedness  in  this  country. 
In  Buenos  Aires  he  met  among  the  distinguished 


158  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

foreign  visitors  General  von  der  Goltz  of  the 
German  Army,  who  was  destined  to  play  such  an 
important  role  in  the  World  War.  He  talked  at 
length  with  the  German  general,  a  devout  disciple 
of  universal  military  training  and  of  the  Prussian 
army  system  as  a  whole. 

Wood  knew  that  the  German  military  scheme 
with  its  iron  discipline  and  its  official  caste  was 
utterly  unsuited  to  this  country.  He  had  always 
been  a  champion  of  the  common  soldier,  and  to 
treat  enlisted  men  like  cattle  was  especially  re 
pugnant  to  his  deep-rooted  sense  of  democracy. 

General  Wood  returned  from  South  America 
more  firmly  convinced  than  ever  that  our  military 
system  ought  to  be  revolutionized.  He  was  more 
than  ever  dissatisfied  with  our  system,  which 
provided  only  for  a  small  and  entirely  inadequate 
army  of  professional  soldiers.  He  felt  that  it  did 
not  even  possess  the  virtue  of  being  democratic  in 
principle. 

He  was  made  Chief-of-Staff  of  the  United 
States  Army  on  July  6,  1910,  and  held  office  until 
April,  1914.  The  Boston  physician,  who  had 
joined  the  army  as  contract  surgeon,  had  now 
scaled  his  way  to  the  peak  of  the  military  structure. 
Having  reached  that  point,  he  was  in  a  much  more 
favourable  position  to  proceed  with  his  prepared 
ness  plans.  However,  his  position  of  prominence 


Chief-of-Staff  of  the  U.  S.  Army       159 

had  its  disadvantages.  As  head  of  our  military 
establishment,  he  was  certain  to  draw  sharp  fire 
'from  the  apostles  of  pacifism  and  from  eloquent 
men  and  women  who  really  knew  nothing  about 
European  political  conditions  and  the  war  dangers 
of  the  Old  World,  but  were  masters  of  beautiful 
theories  whereby  they  could  prove  to  most  any 
intelligent  but  uninformed  audience  that  war  on  a 
great  scale  was  an  absurdity.  In  America  Mr. 
Bryan  was  the  high  priest  of  this  cult. 

Legions  of  publicists  were  shouting  from  the 
forums  of  the  whole  English-speaking  world  that 
war  was  a  thing  of  the  past,  that  with  the  present 
expense  of  maintaining  huge  armies  and  the  dead- 
liness  of  modern  military  engines,  war  meant 
national  bankruptcy,  national  suicide,  and  there 
fore  could  not  take  place. 

This  was  the  peculiar  situation  which  faced 
General  Wood  when  he  first  began  to  advocate  his 
scheme  of  universal  military  training.  He  was 
staking  his  wrhole  record  on  the  success  of  his 
campaign,  knowing  that  if  he  failed  he  was  due  for 
a  fall  from  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  recover. 
But  he  is  not  the  man  to  be  deterred  from  duty 
because  of  danger  either  physical  or  to  his  career. 

His  universal  service  plan  was  based  on  the 
Swiss  and  Australian  systems — short  terms  of 
training  for  the  youth  of  the  land  at  a  time  when 


160  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

they  could  best  afford  to  give  a  few  months  to 
their  country;  intensive  short  officers'  training 
courses  for  college  men  and  others  possessing  the 
necessary  educational  qualifications;  and  more 
extensive  maneuvers  or  military  games  than  this 
country  had  as  yet  undertaken.  In  this  pro 
gramme  Wood  never  contemplated  a  large  stand 
ing  army.  He  opposed  the  essentials  of  the  mili 
tary  programme  of  the  Continental  Powers  which 
demanded  great  sacrifice  of  time  from  its  male 
citizens  while  they  were  going  through  their  train 
ing. 

To  arouse  the  country  to  a  sense  of  its  insecurity 
and  to  move  it  to  action  before  it  became  too  late, 
Wood  was  not  afraid  to  violate  some  of  the  moss- 
grown  traditions  which  encrusted  our  military 
establishment.  We  had  a  sort  of  an  unwritten 
law  which  in  effect  provided  that  army  officers, 
like  small  boys,  should  be  seen  but  not  heard. 
General  Wood  knew  that  his  preparedness  pro 
gramme  required  an  educational  campaign  of 
national  scope.  He  became  its  chief  spokesman 
and  wrote  and  spoke  untiringly  year  after  year  in 
an  effort  to  arouse  the  nation.  He  was  one  of  the 
few  men  in  this  country  who  clearly  foresaw  the 
danger  of  the  approaching  European  war,  and  one 
of  still  fewer  who  had  the  courage  to  advocate 
sound  preparedness  measures. 


Chicf-of-Staff  of  the  U.  S.  Army      161 

In  speeches  and  magazine  articles  he  called 
attention  to  the  many  defects  of  our  army  system 
and  the  vital  necessity  for  improving  it.  He  began 
doing  this  when  nine  out  of  ten  persons  in  this 
land  knew  practically  nothing  about  what  was 
happening  in  Europe  and  cared  less.  How  could 
a  European  war  touch  the  United  States?  Sup 
pose  we  were  challenged?  "A  million  Americans 
would  spring  to  arms  over  night, "  to  quote  the  fa 
mous  political  orator  of  the  Middle  West.  But 
when  the  time  actually  came,  it  was  well  for  us 
that  the  allied  armies  were  in  a  position  to  hold  the 
Western  front  while  our  millions  of  volunteer  and 
drafted  soldiers  were  being  drilled;  and  it  was  well 
that  the  Allies  were  able  to  transport  and  equip 
most  of  our  army,  which  could  not  otherwise  have 
taken  its  place  in  the  trenches  in  France. 

Wood  did  not  sound  any  brass  gong  of  alarm. 
He  went  ahead  slowly  and  surely,  but  steadily. 
He  began  his  preparedness  campaign  while  he  was 
commander  of  the  Philippine  Division,  by  re 
vamping  and  extending  our  system  of  defence  in 
the  islands,  moving  the  military  base  from  Subig 
Bay  to  Manila  Bay,  by  subjecting  our  island  forces 
to  more  intensive  military  training  in  general. 
While  commander  of  the  Eastern  Department, 
he  wrote  extensively  of  our  need  for  comprehensive 
field  maneuvers,  especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that 


162  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

our  forces  were  so  small.  He  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that  while  our  small  army  units  were 
splendidly  trained,  there  was  not  a  single  officer 
in  the  United  States  who  had  had  any  experience 
in  handling  a  large  force  of  men,  say  a  complete 
division.  In  fact,  never  since  the  Civil  War  had 
our  general  officers  been  afforded  the  opportunity 
to  deal  with  the  problems  of  managing  large  army 
units  consisting  of  the  three  branches  of  the  ser 
vice,  infantry,  cavalry,  and  artillery. 

Coming  from  a  man  of  deeds  rather  than  one 
of  words,  Wood's  pleas  for  preparedness  carried 
all  the  more  weight.  Instead  of  painting  lurid 
pictures  of  our  devastated  country  over-run  by 
invading  armies,  he  supplied  the  nation  with  a 
physical  demonstration  of  our  defencelessness. 
This  he  did  by  organizing  in  August,  1909,  the 
most  extensive  maneuvers  the  United  States  had 
yet  staged. 

The  military  problem  presupposed  that,  follow 
ing  the  sudden  rupture  of  diplomatic  relations 
with  a  strong  European  power,  our  North  Atlantic 
fleet  had  been  defeated  and  scattered  off  the  Maine 
coast,  that  the  enemy  had  gained  command  of  the 
North  Atlantic  and  had  landed  an  expeditionary 
force  on  the  coast  of  Massachusetts  with  the  object 
of  capturing  the  city  of  Boston.  The  mock 
campaign  occupied  a  week,  and  was  made  as  real- 


Chief-of-Staff  of  the  U.  S.  Army       163 

istic  as  possible.  The  attack  on  Boston  was  by 
land  and  sea,  army  transports  being  used  in  place 
of  warships.  More  than  14,000  National  Guards 
men  took  part  in  the  hypothetical  battle;  and  while 
the  umpires  officially  declared  the  result  to  be  a  draw, 
they  did  not  conceal  their  belief  that  the  invading 
"Red"  army  had  the  best  of  the  argument  with  the 
defending  "Blues,"  and  that  Boston  would  have 
been  taken  had  the  battle  been  real.  Wood's  war 
game  afforded  the  whole  country  a  striking  proof 
of  the  vulnerability  of  our  Atlantic  coast  cities. 

"But  what  of  our  elaborate  coast  defences  on 
which  we  have  spent  so  much  money?"  asked  the 
skeptics,  still  doubtful  that  an  invasion  was  pos 
sible. 

"A  coast  defence  is  like  a  giant  in  armour," 
answered  Wood.  "He  is  only  effective  within 
the  reach  of  his  club."  Wood  had  demonstrated 
that  no  matter  how  powerful  coast  defences  might 
be,  they  were  absolutely  useless  without  a  well- 
trained,  mobile  army  operating  behind  them. 

Pleading  the  cause  of  preparedness,  General 
Wood  ventured  into  a  new  field.  He  was  unac 
customed  to  writing  and  speaking  hi  public.  He 
had  no  literary  grace,  no  cultivated  art  of  oratory, 
but  he  had  something  to  say,  which  was  more 
important.  He  developed  a  clear,  plain,  forceful 
style, ^illuminated  by  homely,  humorous  phrases. 


164  Tlie  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

"Our  troops  are  split  up  into  companies  of  walk- 
cleaners,  battalions  of  lawn-mowers,  and  regiments 
of  patrolmen,"  he  said  at  one  time  when  he  was 
trying  to  convince  the  country  of  the  uselessness 
of  the  military  posts  in  the  interior  where  there  was 
nothing  to  do  but  mow  the  grass  and  keep  the 
walks  clean.  Wood  demanded  adequate  military 
protection  for  the  Panama  Canal,  the  Philippine 
Islands,  Hawaii,  and  our  great  coast  cities.  At 
tacking  our  wastefulness,  he  pointed  out  that  the 
United  States  spent  $100,000,000  per  year  on  our 
few  thousand  troops,  two  thirds  as  much  as 
Prance  spent  annually  for  her  large  army.  Ancient 
posts,  established  in  the  interior  of  the  West  when 
the  Indians  were  being  pacified,  were  kept  up  at 
huge  expense  because  pork-hunting  Senators  and 
Congressmen  wanted  them,  although  their  useful 
ness  had  long  since  passed.  Of  course,  he  was 
opposed  by  the  politicians  in  his  advocacy  of  scrap 
ping  the  interior  posts  and  grouping  our  military 
forces  on  or  near  the  borders  and  at  the  outposts, 
such  as  the  Philippines  and  the  Panama  Canal. 

Future  historians  will  find  much  valuable  and 
interesting  data  in  the  articles  written  by  General 
Wood  on  military  subjects  during  this  time.  In 
a  series  of  magazine  articles  he  told  of  the  remark 
able  achievements  of  our  soldiers,  which  most  of 
us  had  forgotten,  if,  indeed,  we  had  ever  known. 


Chief-of-Stqff  of  the  U.  S.  Army      165 

The  army  had  cleaned  up  the  pest  holes  of  Cuba 
and  Porto  Rico.  Major  Walter  Reed,  of  the 
United  States  Army,  had  removed  the  peril  of 
yellow  fever;  and  another  army  doctor,  Major 
Bailey  K.  Ashford,  had  discovered  the  cause  of 
tropical  anemia  in  Porto  Rico.  From  the  earliest 
days  in  our  history,  the  army  had  preceded  the 
pioneer  settlers,  pacifying  hostile  Indians  through 
out  the  Middle  West,  the  Far  West,  and  South 
west,  building  trading  posts,  laying  telegraph 
wires,  maintaining  order  and  the  security  of  life 
and  property.  In  late  years,  the  army  had  per 
formed  similar  service  in  Alaska,  connecting  by 
telegraph  the  remotest  outposts  of  that  territory 
with  the  wire  system  of  the  country,  laying  cables, 
equal  in  length  to  some  trans-Atlantic  lines,  build 
ing  wireless  stations  in  most  inaccessible  regions, 
constructing  good  roads  which  will  last  for  decades, 
if  not  centuries,  to  come. 

As  Chief-of-Staff  in  Washington,  General  Wood 
was  more  popular  with  the  officers  and  men  at 
the  military  posts  throughout  the  country  and  the 
territorial  dominions  than  with  the  bureaucrats 
in  the  Capital.  He  brought  into  the  department 
an  untiring  energy  and  initiative  which  made  the 
swivel-chair  experts  uneasy  and  uncomfortable. 
He  challenged  time-honoured  traditions  and  de 
stroyed  quantities  of  red  tape.  For  instance,  al- 


166  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

though  originally  the  various  bureaus  in  Washing 
ton  had  been  created  to  function  for  the  benefit 
and  service  of  the  line,  the  bureau  heads,  sitting 
close  to  the  men  in  power,  had  managed  to  twist 
this  arrangement  about  in  such  a  way  that  the 
line  had  become  subservient  to  the  bureaus.  In 
other  words,  the  servants  in  the  Washington 
War  Department  dictated  to  the  military  forces 
outside. 

This  order  was  upset  without  much  ceremony 
by  General  Wood  who  understood  the  causes  for 
the  inexcusable  delays  in  the  War  Department 
which  had  hampered  him  as  well  as  all  our  other 
active  army  officers  in  the  field  or  at  outlying 
military  posts.  He  decreed  that  henceforth  the 
Washington  bureaus  must  serve  the  line  and  serve 
it  promptly.  This  meant  that  bureau  chiefs 
would  have  to  hustle  and  take  short  cuts  to  supply 
the  needs  of  the  army. 

This  act  was  characteristic  of  Wood.  He  had 
always  been  the  champion  of  the  man  in  the  field. 
If  he  had  any  favourites,  it  was  the  man  on  the  job. 
He  always  had  an  unbounded  faith  in  the  en 
listed  man,  and  he  believed  fervently  that  if  the 
American  army  was  well  officered  and  well  sup 
plied  it  would  inevitably  give  good  account  of  it 
self.  Once  an  officer  remarked  to  him  that  the 
personnel  of  a  certain  regiment  was  below  grade, 


Chief-of-Staff  of  the  U.  S.  Army       167 

and  on  the  whole  rather  poor,  to  which  Wood  re 
plied: 

"A  wise  old  general  once  said/there  are  no  poor 
regiments,  but  there  are  plenty  of  poor  colonels.'" 

He  was  a  stickler  for  building  up  the  morale 
of  the  enlisted  men  to  the  highest  point  and  mak 
ing  each  lowly  private  proud  of  his  uniform  and 
his  profession.  Wood  never  held  too  big  a  job 
to  address  privates,  offer  them  advice  or  correct 
them.  Once  during  the  late  war,  when  he  was  in 
command  of  one  of  the  National  Army  Divisions, 
he  was  driving  in  his  automobile  toward  camp. 
He  noticed  a  private  accompanied  by  a  young 
woman  coming  along  the  road.  As  the  machine 
approached  the  couple,  the  soldier  stooped  over 
apparently  to  tie  his  shoelaces.  General  Wood 
ordered  the  driver  to  halt.  He  called  the  soldier 
over  to  the  machine. 

"Didn't  you  see  us  coming?"  asked  the  General 
in  a  kindly  manner. 

"Yes,  sir,"  answered  the  private. 

"Then  why  didn't  you  salute?" 

The  General  was  smiling,  but  the  soldier  could 
not  find  a  ready  answer  even  though  he  knew  he 
was  not  exactly  being  called  down. 

"Now  I  know  how  you  felt,"  continued  the 
General.  "You  were  with  this  young  woman, 
and  you  felt  a  bit  embarrassed,  so  you  thought 


168  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

you'd  avoid  saluting  by  busying  yourself  with 
your  shoelaces.  That  was  a  mistake.  You  should 
have  said  to  the  young  lady:  'There  comes  the 
old  man  himself.  Now  watch  me  make  him 
salute.'  You  know  that  it  is  your  duty  to  salute 
me  as  your  superior  officer,  but  it  is  just  as  much 
my  duty  to  return  your  salute." 

A  veteran  Rough  Rider,  J.  Pennington  Gardner 
of  Boston,  tells  the  following  incident  from  the 
Spanish-American  War: 

"We  left  San  Antonio,  Texas,  and  in  due  course 
arrived  at  Tampa,  Florida.  A  day  or  so  after  our 
arrival  I  was  told  that  an  aunt  of  mine  from  Boston 
was  at  the  Tampa  Bay  Hotel  and  wanted  to  see 
me.  I  was  astonished,  as  I  had  no  idea  that  she 
was  in  that  part  of  the  world.  I  secured  a  pass 
and  reached  the  hotel  at  about  nine  o'clock  in  the 
evening. 

"It  appears  that  she  had  read  manifold  tales  in 
the  newspapers  that  'the  boys  were  without  shoes 
and  clothing,  etc.'  She  had  a  trunk  full  of  clothing 
she  had  brought  in  the  hope  that  she  could  fit  me 
out.  If  this  happened  to  any  other  outfit,  it  did 
not  happen  to  ours,  as  Colonel  Wood  and  Lieu 
tenant-Colonel  Roosevelt  had  seen  to  it  that  we 
lacked  nothing  in  the  way  of  equipment  and  we 
were  extremely  well  provided  for. 

"The  first  thing  I  was  asked  was  if  I  cared  to 


Chief-of-Staff  of  the  U.  S.  Army      169 

eat  anything.  The  idea  of  a  meal  at  a  table  was 
quite  appealing,  and  we  adjourned  to  the  dining 
room.  My  aunt,  having  already  dined,  merely 
sat  at  the  table  with  me  while  I  had  dinner.  We 
had  been  there  only  about  ten  minutes  when  in 
walked  my  commander — Colonel  Wood,  with 
Brigadier-General  Young,  who  was  in  charge  of  the 
Cavalry  Division. 

"In  the  large  dining  room  there  was  only  one 
table  set  and  this  my  aunt  and  I  occupied  alone. 
Dinner  had  long  since  been  served,  and  it  was  then 
perhaps  9:15  in  the  evening.  The  waiter  showed 
the  Colonel  and  General  up  to  the  table  that  we 
were  sitting  at.  Colonel  Wood  said  to  the  waiter: 
"Set  that  table  over  there,"  indicating  another 
table  some  distance  from  ours,  and  then  left  me. 
Personally,  I  thought  no  more  of  the  incident,  as  it 
was  only  etiquette  and  proper  that  my  Colonel — 
especially  in  company  with  a  Brigadier-General 
of  the  regular  army — should  not  sit  at  the  same 
table  with  me,  being,  as  I  was,  a  private  in  his 
command. 

"The  next  day  out  at  the  camp  I  was  standing 
some  distance  from  Colonel  Wood,  who  appar 
ently  recognized  me  as  the  man  whom  he  had  seen 
the  night  before,  and  whom  he  had  not  sat  down 
with  to  dinner.  He  came  up  to  me  and  said, 
'I  hope  you  did  not  mind  my  not  sitting  down 


170  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

with  you  and  that  lady  you  were  dining  with  last 
night,  as  General  Young  and  I  had  some  private 
matters  that  we  had  to  discuss.'  Most  obviously 
they  were  planning  some  details  in  connection  with 
the  Cuban  campaign.  I  was  perfectly  floored  by 
the  thoughtfulness  of  Colonel  Wood  in  thus  ad 
dressing  me.  I  could  only  salute  and  say  *  Thank 
you,  sir.'  Evidently  he  had  had  in  mind  that  he 
might  have  hurt  my  feelings  in  not  sitting  at  the 
same  table  with  me. 

"This  story  I  have  quoted  many  times  as  in 
dicating  Wood's  personality.  Able  as  he  is  in 
administrative  affairs,  and  strong  as  he  is  in  han 
dling  any  difficult  situation — whether  it  be  in  his 
Apache  campaign  or  in  Cuba  or  in  the  Philippines 
— he  is  under  the  skin  a  man  of  the  most  consider 
ate  nature,  and  his  human  qualities  as  shown  by 
this  little  incident  clearly  set  forth  that  though  a 
regular  army  officer  with  the  stiff  training  of  his 
calling,  he  is  big  in  small  matters  and  as  human 
as  a  man  can  be. 

"  Those  who  knew  him  personally,  or  have  come 
in  contact  with  him,  as  I  did  through  this  small 
incident,  cannot  have  otherwise  than  the  deepest 
regard  for  him  personally." 

It  was  this  spirit  which  has  always  made  the 
officers  and  men  who  worked  under  Wood  swear 
by  him.  It  was  the  spirit  that  won  the  coopera- 


Chief-of-Staff  of  the  U.  S.  Army       171 

tion  of  his  subordinates  in  Cuba,  and  dissolved  the 
hostility  which  he  at  first  encountered  in  the  Philip 
pines,  creating  loyalty  in  its  stead. 

Any  reader  of  this  narrative,  who  has  had  any 
experience  in  business  affairs  of  any  sort,  knows 
that  one  cannot  step  into  an  established  business 
and  propose  and  enforce  important  improvements 
in  service  without  arousing  bitter  antagonism  and 
hatred  on  the  part  of  the  old  hands  who  always 
want  to  run  things  the  way  they  were  run  in  the 
past.  It  makes  no  difference  how  bad  and  ineffi 
cient  the  old  management  may  be,  it  has  its  loyal 
adherents  who  want  to  be  left  comfortably  alone, 
muddling  along  as  they  have  been  accustomed  to 
do. 

As  Chief-of-Staff,  Wood  did  not  leave  things 
alone.  He  made  changes,  going  even  so  far  as  to 
dismiss  one  Brigadier-General.  The  result  was 
that  a  determined  effort  was  made  to  oust  him  from 
office.  A  bill  was  introduced  to  this  effect  by 
Representative  James  Hay  of  Virginia,  chairman 
of  the  House  Committee  on  Military  Affairs,  and 
an  intimate  friend  of  the  dismissed  Brigadier. 

General  Wood  was  too  much  absorbed  in  his 
chosen  work,  that  of  preparing  the  country  against 
the  conflict  which  he  saw  coming,  to  pay  much 
attention  to  the  small  number  of  men  whose 
enmity  he  had  aroused.  His  one  aim  was  to  labour 


172  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

for  the  safety  of  the  nation.  How  farseeing  he 
was  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  shortly  after 
he  took  office  as  Chief-of-Staff  he  began  to  be 
labour  Congress  for  an  appropriation  of  $5,000,000 
for  the  establishment  of  an  aircraft  department. 

"There  is  no  limit  to  the  possibilities  of  the 
airplanes,"  said  General  Wood.  "I  am  heartily 
in  favour  of  experimenting  as  much  as  possible 
in  this  new  branch  of  science  which  has  no  limit 
in  view  of  the  limitless  field — the  air. 
1  "It  may  be  one  year,  it  may  be  more,  but  sooner 
or  later  the  airplane  will  be  the  greatest  factor 
of  the  century  in  the  world's  affairs.  For  these 
reasons  I  shall  use  my  influence  to  the  utmost  to 
obtain  funds  from  Congress  to  enable  the  army 
to  carry  on  experiments  and  trials.  .  .  . 

"Just  at  present  a  dirigible  can  carry  more  men 
and  more  supplies,  and  is,  perhaps,  more  depend 
able  than  a  flying  machine,  but  this  will  not  pre 
clude  my  favouring  the  airplane  for  the  army." 

These  prophetic  words  were  spoken  in  August, 
1910.  In  that  happy,  peaceful,  far-off  time, 
America  and  England  were  bestrewn  with  famous 
writers  and  orators  who  could  prove  in  half  an 
hour  that  another  great  war  was  the  creation  of  a 
disordered  military  mind.  Lord  Roberts,  one  of 
England's  greatest  military  men,  was  sacrificing 
his  honourable  reputation  by  constantly  warning 


Chief -of -Staff  of  the  U.  S.  Army      173 

his  country  against  the  impending  war  tragedy. 
England's  leaders  of  public  opinion  were  making 
kindly  allowances  for  "Bobs,"  who  was,  no  doubt, 
"seeing  things"  in  his  old  age.  England  never 
paid  much  attention  to  the  wise  counsel  of  Lord 
Roberts,  and  the  result  was  that  Britain  came  to 
the  verge  of  defeat  at  the  hands  of  the  Germans. 

Of  course,  Congress  knew  better  than  to  waste 
the  country's  money  and  the  energies  of  our  young 
army  officers  in  aircraft  experiments.  The  air 
plane  was  a  thing  to  be  proud  of  as  an  American 
invention.  It  was  good  enough  to  enliven  a 
Roman  holiday.  To-day  we  can  reflect  that  al 
though  General  Wood,  as  Chief -of -Staff,  demanded 
airplanes  for  our  army  nearly  ten  years  ago, 
predicting  its  great  future  possibilities  at  a  time 
when  aviation  was  still  in  its  early  infancy,  our 
government  neglected  aviation  persistently,  re 
fused  to  help  develop  it,  and  permitted  England, 
France,  Germany,  and  Italy  to  outstrip  us  in  this 
important  branch  of  scientific  endeavour.  In 
1918,  our  army  officers  at  the  front  were  repeating 
the  same  demand  that  General  Wood  made  in 
August,  1910,  and  our  valiant  aviators  fought 
throughout  the  late  war  in  flying  machines  made 
in  France,  England,  and  Italy  and  most  of  them 
old  machines. 

WTith   the   change   of  administration   in    1913, 


174  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Wood  was  slated  for  early  retirement  as  Chief-of- 
Staff.     Newspaper  reports   at  the  time  pointed 
out  that  no  man,  who  had  been  so  closely  indenti- 
fied  with  three  Republican  presidents,  could  ex 
pect  to  continue  long  in  office  as  head  of  our  army. 
However,  he  was  reappointed  by  Lindley  M.  Gar 
rison,  Secretary  of  War,  and  remained  Chief -of- 
Staff  for  more  than  a  year,  Secretary  Garrison  ex 
plaining  that  he  did  not  want  to  disturb  the  Wash 
ington  War  Office  until  he  had  become  better  ac 
quainted  with  it.     Besides,  he  and  Wood  seemed 
at  first  to  be  well  matched  for  effective  team  work. 
Garrison  caught  Wood's  infectious  enthusiasm  for 
preparedness  to  the  extent  that  he  began  to  make 
public  demands  for  a  larger  standing  army.     In 
the  summer  of  1913,  they  made  an  inspection  trip 
of  army  posts  which  turned  out  to  be  something  of 
a  national  preparedness  speech-making  tour.  Both 
spoke  plainly  on  the  need  of  stronger  military  pro 
tection,   but   suddenly   the  speech-making   came 
to   a  halt.     The  explanation   given   was   to   the 
effect  that  Wood  and  Garrison  had  been  silenced 
by  a  stern  rebuke  from  President  Wilson  who 
deplored  their  activity.     But  the  world  was  at 
peace  in  1913.     Two  years  later  Garrison  officially 
censured  Wood  for  permitting  Colonel  Roosevelt 
to  express  his  patriotic  views  on  our  military  needs 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  Plattsburgh  camp,  and  the 


Chief-of-Staff  of  the  U.  S.  Army      175 

United  States  had  then  been  cruelly  challenged 
by  the  world's  greatest  military  power,  and 
Europe  was  in  the  throes  of  the  most  disastrous 
war  in  history. 

However,  Wood  continued  his  preparedness 
work  with  the  cooperation  of  Secretary  Garrison 
in  1913.  With  the  latter 's  permission  he  sent  out 
letters  to  many  presidents  of  colleges  and  univer 
sities,  proposing  the  establishment  of  summer 
military  training  camps  for  students.  The  re 
sponses  were  friendly,  but  somewhat  lacking  in 
enthusiasm.  Still,  Wood  managed  to  recruit 
enough  students  for  two  camps,  one  of  which  he 
located  on  the  historic  battlefield  of  Gettysburg 
and  the  other  on  the  Presidio  of  Monterey,  Cali 
fornia.  The  former  opened  July  7,  1913,  and 
closed  August  15th,  and  the  latter  ran  from  July  1st 
to  August  8th.  One  hundred  and  fifty-nine  students 
reported  for  instruction  at  Gettysburg  and  sixty- 
three  at  Monterey.  One  year  before  the  war  only 
two  hundred  and  twenty-two  young  men  could 
be  interested  in  national  preparedness  to  the  extent 
of  training  for  it.  At  Wood's  suggestion  an  advi 
sory  committee  of  college  presidents  was  formed 
consisting  of  John  Grier  Hibbenof  Princeton,  Henry 
B.  Hutchins  of  Michigan,  Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler 
of  California,  Jacob  Gould  Schurman  of  Cornell, 
Henry  Sturgis  Drinker  of  Lehigh,  and  John  H. 


176  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Finley,  Commissioner  of  Education  of  New  York 
State. 

Despite  the  small  attendance,  the  college  camps 
of  1913  were  a  great  success.  The  two  hundred 
and  twenty-two  students  became  so  many  mis 
sionaries  of  Wood's  ideas  and  they  returned  to 
their  colleges  and  universities  in  the  fall  telling 
their  friends  of  the  interesting  training  they  had 
received  and  the  value  they  had  derived  from  their 
vacation  work.  Wood's  idea  had  taken  root. 
In  the  summer  of  1914,  four  camps  had  to  be 
established  to  accommodate  the  students  who 
volunteered  for  instruction.  Camps  were  estab 
lished  in  Vermont,  North  Carolina,  Michigan,  and 
California.  The  total  attendance  was  six  hundred 
and  sixty -seven. 


IX 

THE  AWAKENER  OF  THE  NATION 

LEONARD  WOOD  remained  Chief-of-Staff 
under  the  Wilson  administration  until  April  22, 
1914,  when  he  was  transferred  to  the  command 
of  the  Department  of  the  East.  It  was  his  old 
command  which  he  had  held  before  going  to  Wash 
ington  in  1910. 

His  headquarters  on  Governor's  Island,  that 
little  pancake  of  land  in  New  York  Harbour 
within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  Statue  of  Liberty, 
now  became  a  busy  centre  of  patriotic  activity. 
From  the  office  which  General  Wood  now  oc 
cupied  in  the  dingy,  weather-beaten  old  building 
on  the  island,  Hancock,  Meade,  McDowell,  Miles, 
and  other  well-known  officers  had  commanded  the 
eastern  military  district.  It  was  a  place  rich  in 
patriotic  tradition,  and  no  more  fitting  spot  could 
have  been  found  from  which  to  disseminate  Wood's 
propaganda  for  the  protection  of  the  United 
States. 

Thus  far  he  had  encountered  no  opposition  to  his 

177 


178  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

plans,  either  on  the  part  of  the  War  Department 
or  the  Administration.  Yet  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
there  was  no  man  in  high  military  office  in  Europe 
or  America  who  was  waging  a  more  aggressive 
campaign  for  military  readiness  than  Wood.  At 
the  same  time,  however,  there  was  no  army  officer 
of  high  rank  either  in  this  or  any  other  country 
who  was  more  unmilitaristic  in  thought  or  utter 
ance.  There  is  no  saber-rattling  to  be  found  in 
any  of  his  numerous  speeches  or  articles  of  this 
period  immediately  preceding  the  outbreak  of  the 
European  war.  He  never  voiced  any  creed  of 
imperialism  or  spread-eagleism.  The  man  who 
had  refused  to  import  American  teachers  to  Cuba 
for  fear  it  might  offend  a  friendly  and  dependent 
alien  race  expressed  no  desire  to  foist  American 
culture  or  institutions  on  foreign  lands. 

He  was  spurred  on  by  a  zeal  for  which  not  even 
his  severest  critic  can  impute  any  other  motive 
than  patriotism  of  the  noblest  order.  The  facts 
speak  for  themselves.  All  our  military  traditions 
impose  silence  on  army  officers.  They  should  be 
seen,  not  heard.  They  should  obey  orders  and  keep 
their  mouths  shut.  Wood  obeyed  orders  to  the 
letter,  and  violated  all  the  sacred  traditions  of 
silence.  He  was  talking,  preaching,  writing, 
night  and  day,  pleading  for  a  larger  army,  bigger 
guns,  airplanes,  maneuvers  on  a  large  scale.  In 


The  Awakener  of  the  Nation         179 

short,  he  was  making  a  show  of  himself  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  military  man  of  orthodox 
traditions.  He  was  making  the  same  sort  of  show 
of  himself  as  Lord  Roberts— " Little  Bobs"— of 
Britain.  Unless  there  was  actual  danger  ahead, 
Wood  could  achieve  nothing  by  his  preparedness 
fight  except  loss  of  prestige  in  the  army. 

And  then,  with  the  suddenness  of  a  thunderclap, 
the  European  war  broke  loose. 

From  President  Wilson  came  the  edict  to  the 
country  that  we  must  remain  "neutral  even  in 
thought."  Wood's  answer  to  this  curious  order 
was  to  establish  the  Plattsburgh  camp  on  Lake 
Champlain.  It  was  an  officers'  training  school 
for  business  men,  teachers,  lawyers,  preachers, 
public  officials,  men  of  all  callings.  Academic 
military  men  and  unreasoning  administration 
partisans  may  argue  even  to-day  that  Wood  was 
insubordinate  in  spirit,  if  not  in  action;  but  there 
are  certainly  times  when  blind  obedience  to  an 
erring  commander-in-chief  ceases  to  be  the  highest 
duty  of  a  military  officer.  Wood's  course  was 
vindicated  by  the  events  of  the  war.  It  has  won 
him  the  admiration  and  active  support  of  men  of 
national  prominence  of  all  political  parties.  In 
response  to  a  letter  sent  by  the  Leonard  Wood 
League  last  December  to  men  of  prominence 
throughout  the  country  asking  support  for  General 


180  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Wood  as  candidate  for  the  Republican  Presidential 
nomination,  Frederick  Coudert,  the  distinguished 
international  lawyer  of  New  York  City,  and  a 
Democrat,  wrote  as  follows: 


I  have  your  letter  of  the  15th  in  regard  to  the  nomina 
tion  of  General  Wood  and  would  say  in  reply  that  I 
am  most  earnestly  hopeful  that  General  Wood  may  be 
nominated,  not  as  you  say,  "to  insure  a  Republican 
victory,"  but  rather  to  secure  a  strong,  fearless,  capable 
Executive  at  a  time  of  national  and  international  diffi 
culties  of  an  extraordinary  character.  The  independent 
voters  of  America  who,  when  aroused,  are  in  number 
sufficient  to  hold  the  balance  of  power,  have  become 
utterly  weary  of  the  politicians,  who  seek  to  use  great 
problems  affecting  the  vital  interests  of  the  nation  as 
stepping-stones  for  personal  or  party  advantage.  Never 
have  party  ties  been  more  lightly  held,  yet  never  has 
national  feeling  been  more  earnestly  aroused  than  during 
the  last  two  years.  The  nation  now  feels  the  need  for  a 
leader  who  will  embody  this  sentiment  in  acts  rather 
than  in  words. 

The  country  is  profoundly  chagrined  at  the  failure 
of  the  present  Administration  to  do  aught  but  sub 
stitute  platitude  for  policy,  promise  for  performance: 
a  course  which  has  led  to  the  paralysis  of  government 
at  a  time  when  the  nations  of  Europe  look  to  America 
for  guidance  and  cooperation  in  reconstructing  a  world 
shattered  by  war. 

The  lamentable  situation  created  in  Mexico  by  such 
a  lack  of  elementary  foresight  and  firmness  such  as  to 
render  ultimate  intervention  seemingly  inevitable,  and 


The  Awakener  of  the  Nation          181 

the  inability  to  deal  effectively  with  domestic  problems 
has  created  an  exceptionally  serious  situation  which 
must  compel  the  choice  of  an  exceptional  man. 

At  a  time  when  a  pusillanimous  neutrality,  ordered 
from  Washington,  benumbed  the  public  mind,  General 
Wood  preached  the  gospel  of  preparedness  at  great  risk 
to  his  own  career,  and  inaugurated  the  training  system 
which  made  it  possible  for  the  American  army  to  have 
a  corps  of  officers  when  war  came.  His  life  has  been 
spent  in  creative  public  activity,  away  from  political 
machination  and  phrase-making.  I  believe  there  is 
to-day  no  one  else  who  will  make  such  an  appeal  to  our 
independent  voters  whose  sole  concern  is  that  the  na 
tion  be  respected  abroad  and  united  at  home,  and  that 
pending  problems  be  met  with  firm  grasp  and  fearless 
mind. 

When  Wood  established  the  first  Plattsburgh 
camp  in  1915,  his  campaign  had  gone  beyond  the 
college  youth  stage.  Every  able-bodied  man  of 
military  age  might  now  be  called  upon  at  any  time 
to  defend  the  rights  of  America  in  the  gigantic 
contest  across  the  seas.  The  first  Plattsburgh  camp 
was  stern  business.  The  men  who  attended  it 
did  so  at  sacrifice  of  time  and  money.  They  paid 
their  own  railroad  fares,  paid  for  their  living  in 
camp,  their  uniforms  and  all  equipment,  except 
arms. 

The  Plattsburgh  camp  was  more  than  a  camp, 
more  than  a  training  school  for  officers.  It  was 
an  idea  which  caught  the  imagination  of  every 


182  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

red-blooded  American.  Ideas  leap  from  one  land's 
end  to  another  and  across  international  boundary 
lines.  There  were  five  training  camps  established 
in  1915  with  a  total  attendance  of  more  than 
3,000.  In  1916  there  were  six  camps  and  the  at 
tendance  grew  to  more  than  16,000. 

The  alumni  of  the  first  college  camps  in  1913  had 
formed  an  organization  which  they  had  called  the 
National  Reserve  Corps,  whose  coat  of  arms  bore 
the  inscription:  "Ready,  Organized,  Prepared," 
and  whose  slogan  was:  "Striving  for  Peace,  but 
Ready  for  War."  The  men  who  attended  the 
first  Plattsburgh  camp  formed  a  society  just  as. 
the  college  men  of  the  Gettysburg  and  Monterey 
camps  had  done,  and  in  1916  these  two  organiza 
tions  merged  under  the  name  of  the  Military 
Training  Camps  Association  of  the  United  States. 
Being  true  Americans,  no  members  of  this  body 
had  any  fear  that  this  democracy  was  in  danger 
of  becoming  militaristic  in  spirit.  They  were 
merely  translating  into  deeds  old  Cromwell's  wise 
saying :  "  Trust  in  God,  but  keep  your  powder  dry." 

Having  fathered  the  training  camps  movement, 
General  Wood  became  their  leader  and  constant 
advisor.  He  inspected  them,  counselled  the  in 
structors,  and  inspired  the  students  by  his  patriotic 
utterances  and  his  clear,  practical  lectures  on  mili 
tary  subjects. 


The  Awakener  of  the  Nation         183 

Officially  he  occupied  a  high  army  position,  but 
unofficially  he  was  far  removed  from  the  seat  of 
power.  His  volunteer  activities  did  not  find 
favour  in  the  eyes  of  the  Administration.  It  must 
be  recalled  that  President  Wilson,  who  had  com 
manded  the  nation  in  1914  to  remain  "neutral 
in  thought,"  was  about  to  appear  for  reelection 
under  the  slogan,  "He  kept  us  out  of  war."  And 
yet,  here  was  a  Major-General  of  the  United  States 
Army  going  up  and  down  the  land  preaching  readi 
ness  for  war  and  urging  the  flower  of  American 
manhood  to  enlist  in  the  military  training  camps 
and  prepare  for  the  worst. 

What  gave  Wood  peculiarly  great  strength  with 
the  masses  of  the  American  people,  who  from  the 
beginning  of  the  war  were  overwhelmingly  pro- 
Ally,  was  that  he  sandwiched  his  speeches  and 
articles  on  preparedness  with  two-fisted  action  of 
the  sort  that  Americans  like.  His  words  were 
propped  up  by  deeds.  The  Boston  maneuvers, 
the  student  camps,  Plattsburgh,  were  deeds.  They 
stood  forth  like  hard  and  clear  mountain  peaks 
above  the  beautiful,  smooth  billows  of  oratory 
which  flowed  from  the  White  House. 

And  Wood  talked  facts,  hard,  uncompromising 
facts,  which  nobody  could  dispute  or  argue  against. 
He  was  indefatigable,  working  just  as  he  had 
worked  in  Cuba,  night  and  day.  Most  of  us  had 


184  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

studied  American  history  rather  uncritically  at 
school,  especially  the  military  part  thereof.  Wood 
found  time  to  rewrite  whole  chapters  of  our  mili 
tary  history,  turning  the  spotlight  on  some  ex 
tremely  disagreeable  facts.  He  showed  that  we 
had  never  been  adequately  prepared  for  any  war 
in  which  we  had  ever  engaged,  and  pointed  to  the 
heavy  sacrifice  in  blood  and  treasure  which  we  had 
sustained  through  unpreparedness  and  defective 
military  organization  from  the  Revolutionary  War 
down  to  the  Spanish-American  War.  In  his  book 
entitled  "Our  Military  History,  Its  Facts  and 
Fallacies,"  he  gave  documentary  proofs  that  some 
of  our  campaigns  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  the 
War  of  1812-14,  and  the  Civil  Wrar  were  not  all 
glorious  for  American  arms.  They  were,  in  fact, 
disastrous. 

His  statistics  showed  that  in  our  wars  we  had 
always  had  superiority  of  troops,  in  some  cases 
overwhelming.  We  had  enrolled  400,000  soldiers 
in  the  Revolutionary  War  and  yet  Washington 
at  no  time  had  an  effective  force  of  more  than 
20,000  men  in  line,  the  large  numbers  of  militia 
'called  from  time  to  time  being  practically  useless. 
'He  quoted  Washington  who  said:  "To  place  any 
dependence  upon  militia  is  assuredly  resting  upon 
a  broken  staff."  In  this  volume  Wood  quoted  at 
length  Washington's  appealing  letters,  describing 


The  Awakener  of  the  Nation          185 

the  disheartening  trials  of  the  war,  due  to  the 
militia  system,  short  enlistments,  and  lack  of 
organization.  Wood  wrote: 

Briefly,  these  are  the  lessons  of  the  (Revolutionary) 
war.  That  a  confederation  of  states,  without  a  strong 
central  government  under  the  direction  of  citizens 
without  experience  in  military  matters  and  under  con 
ditions  which  permit  each  state  to  raise,  arm,  and  equip 
troops,  is  an  exceedingly  weak  form  of  government  for 
the  prosecution  of  war;  that  the  war  resources  of  a  na 
tion  can  only  be  employed  to  the  greatest  advantage 
when  used  as  a  national  force  under  national  control  and 
direction;  that  undisciplined  and  raw  levies  cannot  meet 
disciplined  troops  with  any  hope  of  success ;  that  voluntary 
enlistments  based  on  patriotism  and  the  bounty  cannot 
be  relied  upon  to  supply  men  for  the  army  during  a 
prolonged  war,  but  that  men  should  be  enlisted  for  the 
period  of  the  war;  and,  finally,  that  we  should  turn  to 
the  policy  of  general  military  training  with  a  fixed 
period  of  obligation  for  all  able-bodied  men. 

So  much  for  the  militia  system.  Of  the  War  of 
1812-14  Wood  wrote: 

We  had  apparently  learned  very  little  from  the  les 
sons  of  the  Revolution.  The  war,  taken  as  a  whole, 
was  a  series  of  disasters  and  reverses  on  land,  many  of 
them  highly  discreditable  in  character.  Our  record  on 
the  sea  was  much  better,  and  we  gained  many  notable 
successes.  The  men  of  the  fleet  and  on  the  individual 
ships  of  war  were  better  trained  and  better  disciplined 
than  those  of  the  land  forces. 


186  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

He  emphasized  that  during  our  Indian  war, 
following  the  second  war  with  Britain,  this  nation 
with  a  population  of  seventeen  million  people  had 
spent  seven  years  struggling  with  twelve  hundred 
Indian  warriors,  finally  closing  the  fight  without 
accomplishing  its  object,  that  of  forcing  the 
emigration  of  the  Reds.  Passing  over  the  Mexi 
can  war,  which  was  on  the  whole  our  best-con 
ducted  war,  we  come  to  the  Civil  War.  Here 
Wood  again  pointed  out  the  failure  of  the  militia 
feature  and  of  the  volunteer  system  for  both  the 
North  and  the  South.  Both  had  to  resort  to  the 
draft,  then  continuing:  "The  Confederacy  really 
conducted  the  war  as  a  nation;  the  Union  as  a 
confederacy.  By  so  doing,  the  Confederacy  added 
at  least  fifty  per  cent,  to  its  efficiency.  New 
regiments  were  not  created  to  the  extent  that  they 
were  in  the  North.  Volunteering,  as  could  have 
been  expected,  and  doubtless  was  expected  by  all 
who  had  any  knowledge  of  our  military  history, 
diminished  after  the  first  excitement  was  over,  and 
the  draft  was  in  general  application,  both  in  the 
North  and  the  South." 

In  preparation  for  the  coming  struggle,  Wood 
was  striking  heavy  blows  at  the  volunteer  and 
militia  systems,  and  wisely  preparing  the  nation 
by  the  soundest  educational  methods  for  universal 
service.  When  we  finally  entered  the  war  and 


The  Awakener  of  the  Nation         187 

determined  to  fight  it  as  a  nation,  making  use  of 
conscription,  the  country  overwhelmingly  ap 
proved  this  means  of  distributing  the  sacrifice. 
And  no  man  in  this  great  country  had  done  so 
much  to  prepare  the  way  for  universal  service  as 
Major-General  Leonard  Wood.  For  this  service 
alone  he  deserves  the  undying  gratitude  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States. 

In  those  tense  days  before  we  declared  war  on 
Germany,  it  was  naturally  impossible  for  any  man 
to  stir  around  the  way  that  Leonard  Wood  did 
without  arousing  bitter  opposition  and  active 
enmity  of  thousands  of  people.  That  might  have 
been  expected  from  the  first  by  any  one  who  knows 
the  peculiarities  of  human  nature.  That  the  head 
of  the  War  Department  in  Washington  and  other 
high  officials  of  the  Government  would  be  moved  to 
anger  by  the  volunteer  work  of  the  man  whose  sole 
object  was  to  prepare  the  country  against  danger 
at  the  time  the  world  was  passing  through  the 
greatest  war  tragedy  in  history,  seems  almost  un 
believable,  especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
victory  for  the  Central  Powers  of  Europe  would 
menace  all  our  democratic  institutions  and  lead  to 
greater  armed  conflicts.  Yet,  everybody  knows 
to-day  that  from  Washington  emanated  the  chief 
opposition  against  which  Wood  had  to  contend. 

Early  in  1915  Wood,  then  in  command  of  the 


188  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Department  of  the  East,  was  asked  for  trifling 
assistance  by  the  newly  organized  American 
Legion  (not  the  organization  of  the  same  name 
formed  after  the  war  by  the  World  War  veterans) , 
a  patriotic  society  which  proposed  to  list  and 
classify  all  Americans  of  military  age  who  had  had 
some  military  training.  Officers  of  the  Legion 
asked  Wood  to  lend  them  the  services  of  one  of  his 
aides  to  explain  to  them  the  War  Department's 
standard  method  of  grouping  and  classifying  re 
serves.  The  society  proposed  to  present  the  whole 
list,  containing  some  250,000  names,  to  the  War 
Department  without  cost. 

Wood  was  most  favourably  impressed  by  the 
constructive  and  practical  programme  of  the 
Legion.  He  knew  that  Roosevelt  had  given  it  his 
endorsement,  and  was  much  interested  in  its  work. 
He  could  do  no  less  than  assign  his  aide  to  the  brief 
task  of  showing  the  Legion's  officers  how  to  go 
about  their  classification  labour  so  as  to  conform 
most  closely  to  the  records  of  the  War  Depart 
ment.  He  reported  on  the  whole  matter  to 
Secretary  of  War  Garrison. 

In  reply  Wood  received  a  letter  from  Garrison, 
dated  March  11,  1915,  virtually  rebuking  him  for 
having  anything  to  do  with  the  American  Legion, 
and  ordering  him  to  shun  it  in  the  future.  While 
recognizing  that  it  might  be  desirable  for  the  War 


The  Awakener  of  the  Nation         189 

Department  to  possess  such  a  list  as  the  Legion 
proposed  to  draw  up,  Secretary  Garrison  held  that 
it  was  "undesirable"  for  officers  of  the  army  to 
have  any  connection  with  organizations  outside 
the  War  Department,  dealing  or  contemplating 
dealing  with  the  same  matter. 

But  the  real  storm  against  Wood  did  not  break 
until  after  Colonel  Roosevelt  delivered  his  famous 
talk  at  Plattsburg  on  August  25,  1915.  He 
did  not  mention  the  Administration  at  all  nor 
any  government  officials.  He  delivered  himself  of 
a  few  caustic  sentences  about  the  hyphenates,  and 
paid  his  compliments  to  the  "pacifists  and  pol 
troons"  who  refused  to  fight  for  their  rights  and 
apparently  desired  to  "Chinafy"  the  country. 
While  criticizing  the  German-Americans  of  di 
vided  allegiance  he  emphasized,  as  he  often  did, 
that  the  bulk  of  Americans  of  German  descent  were 
one  hundred  per  cent,  loyal,  saying  that  one  could 
fill  every  high  government  office  from  the  presi 
dent  down  with  men  of  purely  German  blood  who 
had  proved  to  be  nothing  but  Americans. 

The  Colonel  had  prepared  an  address,  but  it  was 
not  until  late  in  the  afternoon  that  he  spoke  and 
the  light  was  too  dim  for  him  to  read  his  speech  as 
he  had  intended.  His  remarks,  therefore,  were 
largely  extemporaneous .  About  five  thousand  per 
sons  heard  the  address,  student  officers  and  civilians. 


190  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

The  mischief  of  his  Plattsburg  visit  was  caused 
by  a  dictated  statement  which  the  Colonel  gave 
to  the  newspaper  men  at  the  Plattsburg  railroad 
station,  way  outside  the  camp,  while  he  was  wait 
ing  for  his  train  to  New  York. 

"I  wish  to  make  one  comment  on  the  statement 
so  frequently  made  that  we  must  stand  by  the 
President,"  said  Colonel  Roosevelt.  "I  heartily 
subscribe  to  this  on  condition,  and  only  on  con 
dition,  that  it  is  followed  by  the  statement  'so 
long  as  the  President  stands  by  the  country.' 

"  Presidents  differ  just  like  other  folks.  No  man 
could  effectively  stand  by  President  Lincoln 
unless  he  had  stood  against  President  Buchanan. 
If  after  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter  President 
Lincoln  had  in  a  public  speech  announced  that  the 
believers  in  the  Union  were  too  proud  to  fight; 
and  if,  instead  of  action,  there  had  been  three 
months  of  admirable  elocutionary  correspondence 
with  Jefferson  Davis,  by  midsummer  the  friends 
:of  the  Union  would  have  followed  Horace  Greeley's 
advice  to  let  the  erring  sisters  go  in  peace,  for 
peace  at  any  rate  was  put  above  righteousness  by 
some  mistaken  soul,  just  as  it  is  at  the  present 
day." 

The  next  day  Secretary  of  War  Lindley  M. 
Garrison  sent  the  following  telegram  to  General 
Wood,  informing  newspaper  men  in  Washington 


The  Awakener  of  the  Nation         191 

that  he  had  done  so  without  consulting  President 
Wilson: 

I  have  just  seen  the  reports  in  the  newspapers  of  the 
speech  made  by  Ex-President  Roosevelt  at  the  Platts- 
burgh  camp.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  anything 
which  would  have  a  more  detrimental  effect  upon  the 
real  value  of  this  experiment  than  such  an  incident. 

This  camp,  held  under  government  auspices,  was 
successfully  demonstrating  many  things  of  great  mo 
ment.  Its  virtue  consisted  in  the  fact  that  it  conveyed 
its  own  impressive  lesson  in  its  practical  and  successful 
operations  and  results. 

No  opportunity  should  have  been  furnished  to  any 
one  to  present  to  the  men  any  matter  excepting  that 
which  was  essential  to  the  necessary  training  they  were 
to  receive.  Anything  else  could  only  have  the  effect 
of  distracting  attention  from  the  real  nature  of  the 
experiment,  directing  consideration  to  issues  which 
excite  controversy,  antagonism,  and  ill-feeling,  and 
thereby  impairing,  if  not  destroying,  what  otherwise 
would  have  been  so  effective. 

There  must  not  be  any  opportunity  given  at 
Plattsburgh  or  any  other  similar  camp  for  any  such 
unfortunate  consequences. 

In  reply  to  this  stinging  rebuke,  General  Wood 
sent  Secretary  Garrison  this  message: 

Your  telegram  received,  and  the  policy  laid  down 
will  be  rigidly  adhered  to. 


192  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Aside  from  the  fact  that  Secretary  Garrison 
apparently  made  no  effort  to  investigate  fully  the 
circumstances  of  Colonel  Roosevelt's  criticism, 
and  reprimanded  General  Wood,  the  ranking 
officer  in  point  of  service  in  the  United  States 
Army,  for  statements  made  by  another  man  out 
side  the  Plattsburgh  camp,  it  might  be  recalled  that 
not  so  very  long  before  this  incident,  both  he,  him 
self,  as  well  as  Wood  had  been  criticized  by  the 
President  for  making  preparedness  speeches,  ac 
cording  to  popular  reports. 

The  Garrison  rebuke  caused  a  nation-wide  up 
roar.  Almost  every  newspaper  of  note  defended 
Wood  and  scored  Garrison.  Wood,  of  course,  said 
nothing. 

How  the  camp  at  Plattsburgh  felt  about  the  whole 
matter  is  best  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  rookies 
consisting  of  business  men,  college  students,  men 
of  all  political  beliefs,  united  in  the  protests  against 
Secretary  Garrison's  reprimand.  The  day  after 
Garrison's  letter  was  published,  General  Wood 
reviewed  the  student  officers.  The  men  marched 
in  perfect  order.  Then  suddenly  someone  started 
to  applaud  the  General;  it  was  enough  to  break 
military  discipline  for  a  few  moments.  The 
rookies  gave  vent  to  their  pent-up  feelings  in  a 
vigorous  applause  for  Wood. 

A  few  simple  facts  from  the  history  of  our 


The  Aivakener  of  the  Nation         193 

participation  in  the  European  war  tell  more 
effectively  than  anything  else  could  what  General 
Wood  did  to  get  the  country  ready.  Our  armies 
suffered  from  shortage  of  airplanes,  artillery,  and 
tanks,  but  so  far  as  the  human  material  was  con 
cerned,  there  was  nothing  the  matter  with  our 
preparation  or  output. 

In  his  report  of  November  21,  1918,  a  few  days 
after  the  Armistice  was  signed,  General  Pershing 
stated  that  the  first  American  force  using  Ameri 
can  airplanes  went  into  action  in  August,  1918, 
sixteen  months  after  war  was  declared  by  the 
United  States.  We  were  in  the  war  a  little  more 
than  nineteen  months,  during  which  time  not  a 
single  American  battery  employed  an  American 
field  gun  and  only  one  hundred  and  nine  American 
field  guns  had  arrived  in  Europe  at  all.  In  the 
summer  of  1918,  Floyd  Gibbons,  the  war  cor 
respondent  who  had  just  returned  from  France, 
lecturing  in  Carnegie  Hall,  New  York  City,  told 
his  audience: 

"I  experienced  a  great  thrill  to-day.  Passing 
by  the  Public  Library  I  beheld  on  its  steps  the 
first  American  tank  that  I  have  ever  seen." 

This  remark  was  made  all  the  more  bitter  as  the 
speaker  had  lost  an  eye  and  had  been  otherwise 
seriously  wounded  while  going  over  the  top  with 
American  soldiers  fighting  machine  guns.  Dur- 


194  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

ing  the  last  part  of  the  war  our  army  was  the  only 
one  in  Europe  to  fight  machine  guns  with  flesh  and 
blood.  The  French  and  the  British  either  used 
tanks  or  else  smothered  machine-gun  nests  with 
artillery  fire.  Our  artillerymen  were  equipped 
with  French  field  guns  of  ancient  model.  We 
borrowed  our  tanks  from  our  Allies. 

But  we  had  trained  nearly  4,000,000  soldiers 
before  the  Armistice  was  signed  and  more  than  half 
of  that  number  had  gone  to  France.  More  than 
200,000  officers  had  been  trained. 

What  astonished  the  British,  French,  and  Italian 
officers  more  than  anything  else  was  not  our  ability 
to  raise  such  a  large  army,  but  the  miraculous 
facility  with  which  we  trained  such  a  large  number 
of  officers  in  such  a  short  period. 

It  was  the  result  of  Wood's  work.  These 
200,000  officers  were  not  trained  in  the  camps  that 
he  established  before  we  entered  the  war,  but  when 
we  did  declare  war,  the  United  States  possessed 
the  mould  and  model  of  officers'  training  camps. 
The  Plattsburgh  idea  was  responsible  for  the  seem 
ingly  miraculous  results  attained  by  the  United 
States  in  officering  our  troops.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  training  200,000  officers  in  nineteen  months 
was  no  miracle  at  all.  Wood  had  been  preparing 
for  the  job  since  1913,  the  year  before  the  European 
war  began,  when  as  Chief-of-Staff  he  established 


The  Awakener  of  the  Nation         195 1 

the  first  student  camps  at  Gettysburg,  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  Monterey,  California. 

Now  we  come  to  the  astonishing  series  of 
humiliations  which  the  Administration  heaped  on 
General  Wood,  seemingly  as  punishment  for 
his  activities  in  insuring  American  victory. 
Shortly  before  the  United  States  declared  war 
and  at  a  time  when  everybody  knew  it  was 
inevitable,  David  Starr  Jordan,  one  of  the  country's 
chief  apostles  of  pacifism,  wrote  a  letter  to 
Secretary  of  War  Newton  D.  Baker,  who  had 
succeeded  Garrison,  complaining  against  General 
Wood's  speeches. 

Immediately  after  war  was  declared,  Wood 
wrote  and  personally  delivered  two  letters,  one  to 
the  Adjutant-General  of  the  Army  and  the  other 
to  the  Chief  -of  -Staff,  asking  for  service  abroad. 
He  was  then  fifty-six  years  old,  sound  in  mind 
and  body,  and  in  service  the  ranking  general  offi 
cer  of  the  army. 

He  never  received  any  reply,  not  even  an  ac 
knowledgment.  What  he  did  receive  was  notice 
that  the  Department  of  the  East  which  he  com 
manded  had  been  divided  into  three  small 
departments — although  several  governors  of  the 
Atlantic  states  had  vigorously  opposed  such  a! 
plan.  With  this  notice  came  an  order  relieving 
Wood  of  his  command  and  offering  him  the  choice 


196  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

of  three  military  positions,  the  Philippines,  Hawaii, 
or  the  "less  important  post"  at  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  headquarters  of  the  newly  created  South 
eastern  Department.  Wood  chose  the  "less  im 
portant  post." 

Apparently  the  War  Department  paid  greater 
heed  to  Dr.  Jordan's  letter  protesting  against  pre 
paredness  when  war  was  at  hand,  than  to  General 
Wood's  letter  asking  for  assignment  at  the 
front. 

Although  the  whole  country  knew  that  Wood 
had  won  the  disfavour  of  the  Administration 
nevertheless  his  demotion  came  as  a  great  shock 
to  most  people.  Again  the  press  took  up  the  cud 
gel  in  Wood's  defence  just  as  it  had  done  following 
the  Plattsburgh  incident.  The  Department  of 
the  East  is  known  as  one  of  the  most  import 
ant  military  commands  in  the  country,  and 
friends  of  the  Administration,  as  well  as  its  foes, 
felt  that  a  great  mistake  was  being  made  not  only 
in  removing  General  Wood  from  a  big  command  to 
a  comparatively  insignificant  one,  but  in  the  very 
act  of  humiliating  an  officer  who  had  been  so 
conspicuously  active  in  doing  everything  he 
could  to  make  the  country  more  ready  for  the 
struggle. 

Wood  assumed  command  at  Charleston  in  the 
early  part  of  May,  1917.  During  the  next  few 


The  Awakener  of  the  Nation         197 

months  he  managed  to  find  plenty  to  do  selecting 
and  planning  eleven  large  camps  for  the  National 
Army  and  three  officers'  training  camps,  one  at 
Oglethorpe,  Georgia,  one  at  Atlanta,  and  one  at 
Little  Rock,  Arkansas. 

Reprimands  and  the  shifting  of  Wood  to  less 
important  fields  of  activity  did  not  seem  to  be 
having  much  effect.  In  favour  or  out  of  favour, 
Wood  was  following  his  old  habit  of  keeping  busy 
and  doing  a  lot  of  useful  work.  Whether  or  not 
this  was  recognized  by  the  Administration,  the  fact 
remains  that  Wood  was  transferred  again  in 
August,  1917,  still  farther  away  from  the  scenes  of 
most  active  war  preparations.  This  time  he  was 
shifted  to  Camp  Funston,  Kansas,  to  train  and 
command  the  89th  Division  of  the  National 
Army. 

This  kicking  of  General  Wood  from  pillar  to 
post  was  utterly  futile.  It  harmed  only  the  Ad 
ministration,  while  enhancing  Wood's  popularity. 
Through  his  unselfish  devotion  to  the  country's 
cause  Wood  had  become  a  central  figure  in  the 
war.  Apparently  the  Administration  was  deter 
mined  to  move  him  from  the  centre  of  the  stage, 
but  Wood  had  the  peculiar  habit  of  taking  the 
centre  of  the  stage  with  him.  When  he  was 
shipped  from  South  Carolina  to  Kansas,  South 
Carolina  regretted  the  move  and  Kansas  rejoiced. 


198  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Was  the  transfer  intended  as  a  demotion?  If 
it  was,  Kansas  had  a  ready  answer.  Kansas 
made  Wood  a  Citizen  Extraordinary  through 
the  following  proclamation  of  Governor  Arthur 
Capper: 

STATE  OF  KANSAS 

GOVERNOR'S  OFFICE 

KNOW  ALL  MEN  BY  THESE  PRESENTS: 

INASMUCH  as  the  life  of  a  state,  its  strength  and 
virtue  and  moral  worth  are  directly  dependent  upon 
the  character  of  the  citizens  who  compose  it  and 

INASMUCH  as  it  is  a  solemn  obligation  imposed 
upon  the  Governor  of  the  state  to  promote  and  advance 
the  interests  and  well-being  of  the  commonwealth  in 
every  way  consistent  with  due  regard  for  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  sister  states,  and 

WHEREAS,  the  soldier,  Leonard  Wood,  Major- 
General  in  the  United  States  Army  and  now  command 
ant  at  Camp  Eunston,  has  shown  by  his  daily  life,  by 
his  devotion  to  duty,  by  his  high  ideals  and  by  his  love 
of  country,  that  he  is  a  high-minded  man  after  our  own 
hearts,  four-square  to  all  the  world,  one  good  to  know, 

NOW,  THEREFORE,  I,  Arthur  Capper,  Governor 
of  the  State  of  Kansas,  do  hereby  declare  the  said 
MAJOR-GENERAL  LEONARD  WOOD 
to  be,  in  character  and  in  ideals,  a  true  Kansan.     And 
by  virtue  of  the  esteem  and  affection  the  people  of 
Kansas  bear  him,  I  do  furthermore  declare  him  to  be 
to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  citizen  of  this  state,  and 


The  Awakener  of  the  Nation         199 

as  such  to  be  entitled  to  speak  the  Kansas  language,  to 
follow  Kansas  customs  and  to  be  known  as 
CITIZEN  EXTRAORDINARY 
IN  WITNESS  WHEREOF  I  have  here- 
rQ       ,      unto  subscribed  my  name  and  caused  to 
^J      be  affixed  the  Great  Seal  of  the  State  of 
Kansas.     Done  at  Topeka,  the  capitol,  this 
19th  day  of  December,  A.  D.  1917. 

ARTHUR  CAPPER. 

Governor. 

Late  in  November,  after  he  had  his  training 
work  well  advanced,  Wood  was  ordered  to  France, 
as  were  most  of  the  other  officers  in  command  of 
National  Army  cantonments,  to  observe  the  mili 
tary  operations  at  the  front.  He  landed  in  Liver 
pool  on  Christmas  Day,  and  while  in  England 
conferred  with  General  Robertson,  British  Chief  - 
of -Staff,  and  General  French. 

On  January  27th,  while  watching  artillery  practice 
at  Fere-en-Tardenois  a  mortar  shell  burst  inside 
the  gun  exploding  the  piece.  The  whole  crew  was 
blown  to  pieces.  Four  officers  standing  near 
General  Wood  were  instantly  killed.  Colonel 
Charles  E.  Kilborne,  Wood's  Chief-of-Staff,  was 
badly  wounded  in  the  face  and  Major  Kenyon  A. 
Joyce,  another  aide,  received  a  wound  in  the  arm. 
The  General  himself  received  a  severe  wound  in 
his  left  arm.  He  was  the  only  man  standing  near 
the  gun  who  was  not  killed.  General  Wood  was 


200  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

removed  to  a  Field  First  Aid  Hospital  for  an  emer 
gency  dressing.  The  next  day  he  motored  about 
one  hundred  miles  to  Paris  where  he  entered  the 
French  Officers'  Hospital  in  the  Hotel  Ritz. 
Thanks  to  the  excellent  surgical  attention  he  re 
ceived  and  his  own  splendid  physical  condition, 
he  recovered  rapidly.  While  mending,  he  was 
consulted  by  Clemenceau,  Poindare,  and  Joffre. 
About  the  middle  of  February  he  left  for  the 
United  States. 

No  sooner  had  he  reached  Washington  than 
seemingly  inspired  news  stories  began  to  appear 
in  the  press  reflecting  doubt  that  he  would  be  s  .it 
back  to  France  for  active  duty.  It  was  announced 
that  he  would  have  to  pass  a  physical  examination. 
A  few  days  later  Wood  was  examined  by  a  Medical 
Board  consisting  of  Major  W.  J.  Mayo  of  Roches 
ter,  Minnesota,  Colonel  W.  T.  Longcope  of  New 
York  City,  and  Colonel  Frank  Billings  of  Chicago, 
all  medical  scientists  of  international  reputation. 
The  board  pronounced  Wood  sound  and  physically 
fit  to  command  at  the  front. 

Like  all  the  general  officers  who  had  been  sent 
abroad  for  inspection,  General  Wood  was  sum 
moned  before  the  Senate  Military  Affairs  Com 
mittee  and  questioned  as  to  the  conditions  at  the 
front  and  the  need  of  men.  He  told  the  Com 
mittee  that  America  must  prepare  to  raise  an  army 


The  Awakener  of  tlie  Nation          201 

of  5,000,000  men.  One  newspaper  commented 
later  that  it  was  not  until  Wood  had  given  his 
estimate  of  the  military  requirements  that  Pres 
ident  Wilson  began  to  talk  about  an  army  of 
5,000,000.  "No  other  American  general  return 
ing  from  France  had  said  anything  about  5,000,000 
men,"  as  one  Eastern  newspaper  put  it,  "only 
Wood.  The  fault  of  Wood  is  his  size." 

After  appearing  before  the  Military  Affairs 
Committee,  Wood  left  for  Camp  Funston  to 
resume  his  work  of  training  the  89th  Division 
which  was  completed  the  latter  part  of  May.  The 
89th  was  then  ordered  abroad  for  service.  Ac 
companying  his  division  to  New  York,  General 
Wood  had  no  intimation  that  he  would  not  be 
sent  overseas,  but  on  arriving  at  Camp  Mills, 
Long  Island,  on  May  25th,  he  found  an  order  from 
the  War  Department  relieving  him  of  his  com 
mand  and  instructing  him  to  go  to  San  Francisco 
to  take  charge  of  the  Western  Department.  Two 
days  later,  General  Wood  went  to  Washington 
where  he  asked  President  Wilson  and  Secretary  of 
War  Baker  to  rescind  the  order  and  give  him  per 
mission  to  go  abroad.  He  was  told  that  the 
President  would  take  the  matter  into  considera 
tion.  That  was  the  last  he  heard  from  the 
President.  Wood  returned  to  New  York  City 
to  bid  farewell  to  his  division.  Reviewing  the 


202  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

troops  for  the  last  time,  he  addressed  his  men  as 
follows: 

"I  will  not  say  good-bye,"  and  those  who  heard 
him  said  his  voice  trembled  with  emotion.  "But 
consider  it  a  temporary  separation — at  least  I 
hope  so.  I  worked  hard  with  you  and  you  have 
done  excellent  work.  I  had  hoped  very  much  to 
take  you  over  to  the  other  side.  In  fact,  I  had  no 
intimation,  direct  or  indirect,  of  any  change  of 
orders  until  we  reached  here  the  other  night. 

"The  orders  have  been  changed  and  I'm  to  go 
back  to  Funston.  I  leave  for  there  to-morrow 
morning.  I  wish  you  the  best  of  luck,  and  I  ask 
you  to  keep  the  high  standard  of  conduct  you  have 
had  in  the  past.  There  isn't  anything  to  be  said. 
The  order  stands,  and  the  only  thing  to  do  is  to  do 
the  best  we  can — all  of  us — to  win  the  war.  That's 
what  we're  here  for,  that's  what  we've  been  trained 
for.  I  shall  follow  your  career  with  the  deepest 
interest,  with  just  as  much  interest  as  though  I 
were  with  you.  Good  luck  and  God  bless  you." 

Before  leaving  he  shook  hands  with  every  man 
in  the  entire  division. 

So  far  as  we  know,  General  Wood  has  never 
made  any  other  comment  on  the  order  which  de 
prived  him  of  the  command  of  his  division.  No 
one  has  ever  heard  him  speak  one  word  of  criticism 
against  his  shabby  treatment.  There  was  no  need 


The  Awdkener  of  the  Nation         203 

of  it.  Everybody  else  spoke  for  him.  Even  the 
strongest  Democratic  papers  in  the  country  de 
nounced  as  mean-spirited  and  utterly  un-American 
this  attempt  to  humiliate  a  man  with  such  a  long 
and  honourable  military  and  civil  record.  The 
storm  of  indignation  proved  too  strong.  The 
Administration  compromised.  The  order  assign 
ing  Wood  to  San  Francisco  was  revoked  and 
he  was  sent  back  to  Camp  Funston  instead,  to 
train  a  new  division,  the  10th,  which  was  ready  to 
go  abroad  on  November  llth,  when  the  Armistice 
was  signed. 

The  Washington  correspondents  tried  to  pry 
from  the  Administration  some  intelligent  explana 
tion  for  keeping  Wood  at  home.  But  their  effort 
was  in  vain. 

In  spite  of  the  crowding  events  of  great  impor 
tance  during  the  last  few  months  of  the  war,  the 
Administration  found  it  hard  to  live  down  the 
Wood  episode.  "  Wood  has  been  like  a  sore  thumb 
to  Wilson,"  remarked  Colonel  Roosevelt.  When 
members  of  Congress,  newspapermen,  and  others, 
who  were  not  afraid  to  offend  the  powers  in  Wash 
ington,  even  in  time  of  war,  returned  from  over 
seas  with  stories  about  the  shortage  of  American 
artillery,  airplanes,  and  tanks,  the  Administration 
would  be  reminded  sharply  of  its  treatment  of 
General  Wood.  This  man  whom  Washington 


204  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

sought  to  bury  in  Hawaii,  or  the  Philippines,  as 
far  from  the  war  as  possible,  had  done  more  than 
any  other  man  in  the  country  to  get  us  ready. 

Ex-President  Taft  in  an  article  under  the  head 
line  "The  Shelving  of  Wood,"  in  the  Philadelphia 
Ledger  of  June  1,  1918,  wrote: 

The  country  is  seriously  disappointed  that  General 
Wood  has  not  been  permitted  to  go  abroad  with  the 
division  which  he  has  been  training.  The  New  York 
World  (strong  Administration  supporter)  refers  to  the 
change  of  orders  in  his  case  as  likely  to  leave  a  bad  taste 
in  the  mouths  of  the  friends  of  the  Administration. 
Those  who  are  not  thick  and  thin  followers  of  the  Presi 
dent  are  even  more  disappointed.  The  previous  treat 
ment  of  General  Wood  creates  doubt  of  the  explanation 
that  his  shelving  is  due  to  General  Pershing's  request. 
The  suspicion  that  it  is  but  a  continuation  of  the  dis 
ciplining  of  General  Wood,  this  time  for  his  recent  frank 
attacks  before  the  Senate  Military  Affairs  Committee, 
will  find  strong  lodgement  in  the  minds  of  the  people. 

One  may  recall  Lincoln's  long  patience  with  Mc- 
Clellan's  rude  remarks  and  insulting  conduct  toward 
him,  and  Lincoln's  remark  that  he  would  hold  Mc- 
Clellan's  horse  for  him  if  McClellan  would  only  render 
the  service  the  country  needed.  With  a  like  spirit, 
Lincoln  called  Stanton  to  the  war  office  in  spite  of  Stan- 
ton's  previous  bitter  criticism  of  him  and  his  adminis 
tration. 

The  popular  disgust  aroused  by  what  now  ap 
peared  to  be  a  set  programme  of  hounding  General 


The  Awakener  of  the  Nation         205 

Wood  aroused  Congress,  and  on  June  11,  1918, 
Secretary  of  War  Baker  was  called  before  the 
Military  Affairs  Committee  and  questioned  why 
Wood  had  been  kept  at  home.  One  of  the  Sena 
tors  gave  this  report  of  the  meeting: 

"Mr.  Baker  told  us  that  he  did  not  know  what 
was  in  the  mind  of  the  Commander-in-Chief  as  to 
Wood.  WTiich  translated,  I  suppose,  means  that 
the  President  has  not  told  Mr.  Baker  what  he  pro 
poses  to  do  with  General  Wood." 

According  to  newspaper  reports,  Senator  Hitch 
cock  questioned  Baker  as  to  the  cause  for  reliev 
ing  Wood  of  his  command.  "Mr.  Baker  at  once 
assumed  his  best  defensive  methods,  and  all  cross- 
questioning  failed  of  its  purpose."  On  the  same 
day  that  Baker  was  being  grilled,  Roosevelt  said 
in  a  speech  in  St.  Louis: 

"If  this  country  had  followed  the  advice  Gen 
eral  Wood  gave  us  three  years  ago,  if  we  had 
utilized  the  knowledge  he  had  and  profited  by  his 
vision  when  we  entered  this  war,  we  would  have 
had  2,000,000  trained  men  and  the  arms  to  equip 
them.  Russia  would  never  have  broken  down 
and  peace  would  have  come  within  ninety  days." 

On  the  next  day  Senator  Johnson  of  California, 
now  one  of  Wood's  rivals  for  the  Republican  pres 
idential  nomination,  asked  the  Administration  to 
explain  Wood's  recall,  and  read  before  the  Senate 


206  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

many  editorials  from  papers  of  all  political  opin 
ions  demanding  such  an  explanation.  Among  the 
other  members  of  Congress  who  volunteered  as 
Wood  champions  at  this  time  was  Representative 
Richard  Olney,  a  Democrat,  of  Massachusetts 
and  a  member  of  the  House  Committee  on  Military 
Affairs.  Mr.  Olney,  who  had  formerly  urged  the 
promotion  of  Major-General  Wood  to  the  rank  of 
General,  now  addressed  an  appeal  to  Secretary 
Baker,  but  nothing  was  done. 


THE  CHAMPION  OF  LAW  AND  ORDER 

AFTER  the  Armistice,  Major-General  Wood 
was  transferred  to  the  Central  Department  with 
headquarters  in  Chicago  where  his  duties  consisted 
chiefly  of  superintending  demobilization.  It  was 
an  eminently  respectable  assignment  demanding 
the  services  of  a  man  of  tried  administrative 
ability.  Next  to  the  Eastern  Department  it  was 
perhaps  the  most  important  post  in  the  country. 
But  nothing  of  any  consequence  was  due  to  happen 
there. 

It  was  deadly  dull,  routine,  swivel-chair  work 
which  Wood  encountered  in  Chicago.  Fortunately, 
he  had  not  gotten  out  of  his  old  habit  of  picking 
up  odd  jobs. 

One  evening  during  the  winter  of  1918-19,  Gen 
eral  Wood  was  walking  to  his  hotel  from  the  army 
headquarters  in  East  Ohio  Street  when  he  en 
countered  two  young  men  in  uniform.  Both 
boys  were  intoxicated.  Each  had  lost  an  arm. 
General  Wood  stopped  them  and  began  to  ques- 

207 


208  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

tion  them.  They  had  been  discharged,  they  told 
the  General,  and  had  stopped  off  in  Chicago  on 
their  way  to  their  homes  in  the  West.  A  well- 
meaning  civilian  had  offered  them  a  drink.  There 
had  been  a  soldiers'  celebration  in  the  course  of 
which  they  had  lost  all  their  money  and  their 
railroad  tickets.  General  Wood  sent  the  boys  to 
a  hotel  and  paid  for  their  supper  and  lodgings 
over  night. 

It  was  an  act  of  kindness  such  as  any  American 
soldier  or  civilian  might  have  performed.  But 
Wood  did  not  stop  with  providing  food  and  shelter 
for  the  boys  for  one  night.  He  recognized  the 
misfortune  of  the  soldiers  whom  he  had  befriended 
merely  as  a  sample  of  thousands  of  similar  cases. 

The  war  heroes  were  returning,  most  of  them 
mere  boys  who  a  few  years  ago  had  been  wearing 
knickerbockers  and  had  never  been  away  from 
their  homes  until  they  were  called  to  fight  for  their 
country.  In  the  army  they  had  been  protected 
by  military  discipline.  Discharged,  they  were 
adrift,  boys  once  more,  subject  to  great  tempta 
tions,  especially  during  the  first  few  days  after 
their  return  when  they  were  lionized  by  their  fellow 
citizens. 

The  day  after  he  met  the  two  wounded  veterans. 
Wood  started  his  reconstruction  work  in  behalf  of 
returned  soldiers  in  Chicago.  He  turned  his  great 


The  Champion  of  Law  and  Order     209 

organizing  ability  to  the  task  of  forming  a  central 
bureau  for  aiding  the  discharged  soldiers.  The 
work  had  already  begun,  but  in  a  rather  slip-shod 
way.  Chicago  as  well  as  other  cities  had  several 
such  bureaus,  but  they  lacked  organization.  They 
were  scattered  units  without  any  centralized  team 
work.  The  Chicago  bureau  as  organized  by  Wood 
became  the  model  for  the  Federal  Bureau  for  find 
ing  employment  for  returning  soldiers.  Under  the 
guidance  of  Major-General  Leonard  Wood,  the  man 
who  had  unwillingly  stayed  at  home,  the  Chicago 
Federal  Bureau  won  the  reputation  of  being  the 
most  efficiently  run  office  of  its  kind  in  the  country. 
General  W'ood's  plan  for  assisting  the  veterans 
included  a  central  registration  office,  an  efficiently 
run  employment  bureau,  sleeping  quarters  for 
men  without  funds,  and  an  information  bureau 
to  guide  soldiers  to  places  where  they  might  secure 
wholesome  food  and  clean  beds  at  reasonable 
prices.  He  secured  the  cooperation  of  Chicago's 
leading  business  men  and  representatives  of  the 
various  societies  which  had  turned  their  energies 
to  war  work,  including  the  Salvation  Army,  the 
Red  Cross,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  the 
Knights  of  Columbus,  the  Chicago  Vocational 
Training  Board,  the  Jewish  Welfare  Board,  the 
Farm  Labour  Administration,  the  Women's  Trade 
Union  League,  the  Lodging  Bureau  of  Chicago, 


210  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

and  scores  of  church  organizations  and  other  so 
cieties. 

In  the  summer  of  1919  there  occurred  in  the  se 
cond  largest  city  in  the  United  States  a  race  riot 
which  in  brutality  and  mob  violence  surpassed  any 
outburst  of  lawlessness  this  country  has  ever  known. 
By  the  time  the  local  police  and  state  authorities 
had  crushed  the  mob  spirit  and  restored  order, 
thirty-five  Negroes  and  twenty  white  persons  were 
reported  to  have  been  slain,  while  scores  of  men 
and  women  had  met  with  serious  physical  injury. 

It  was  indeed  an  ugly  blot  on  American  history, 
as  humiliating  to  the  nation  as  it  was  to  the  city  in 
which  it  occurred.  But  fundamentally  the  riot  in 
Chicago  was  no  more  criminal  nor  disturbing  than 
other  demonstrations  against  law  and  order  which 
have  taken  place  within  the  past  year,  but  which 
have  been  more  promptly  quelled,  and  conse 
quently  have  not  resulted  in  such  heavy  blood 
shed. 

The  country  had  hardly  recovered  from  the  first 
sharp  shock  of  the  Chicago  riots  when  a  similar 
outburst  occurred  in  Omaha,  Nebraska.  The  cir 
cumstances  which  led  to  the  Omaha  riot  differed 
only  in  details  from  the  Chicago  incident.  Both 
were  spontaneous  outbreaks  of  mob  passion  di 
rected  against  the  coloured  people. 

The  mob  in  Omaha  stormed  the  county  jail, 


The  Champion  of  Law  and  Order 

lynched  a  Negro  accused  of  having  assaulted  a 
young  white  woman,  almost  succeeded  in  lynch 
ing  Edward  P.  Smith,  the  heroic  Mayor  of  the 
city,  who  attempted  most  courageously  to  save  the 
coloured  prisoner  from  illegal  execution,  and 
burned  the  courthouse  and  county  jail. 

Governor  Samuel  R.  McKelvie  of  Nebraska 
immediately  called  for  Federal  troops.  When  he 
received  word  of  the  riot,  General  Wood,  in  whose 
district  (the  Central  Department)  the  crime  oc 
curred,  was  on  an  inspection  tour  in  South  Dakota, 
far  from  the  scene  of  disorder.  He  at  once  sent 
his  terse  orders  over  the  wire,  and  within  a  few 
minutes  after  Governor  McKelvie  had  appealed 
for  help,  trained  veterans  were  rushing  to  Omaha. 
Wood  commandeered  a  railroad  engine  and  a  ca 
boose,  and  rode  a  night's  journey  to  connect  with  a 
train  which  took  him  to  Omaha.  He  was  in  the  city 
the  day  following  the  lynching,  and  sixteen  hun 
dred  picked  soldiers  were  patrolling  the  streets. 
In  less  than  twenty -four  hours  law  and  order  were 
restored  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  rioters 
were  in  jail.  Three  days  later  Wood  left  Omaha, 
a  quiet  and  orderly  community. 

The  main  difference  between  the  Chicago  and 
Omaha  riots  lay  in  this:  that  in  the  Nebraska  city 
the  mob  which  had  declared  itself  an  outlaw  of 
civilization  was  pacified  within  twenty-four  hours 


The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

by  a  handful  of  troops  directed  by  a  strong  leader 
who  never  allowed  himself  to  become  excited.  Not 
a  shot  was  fired  in  stamping  out  the  condition  of 
anarchy  which  temporarily  prevailed.  Had  the 
state  of  Illinois  availed  itself  of  the  same  leader 
ship,  it  is  virtually  certain  that  not  a  single  person, 
black  or  white,  would  have  met  death  or  injury 
after  the  first  mad  demonstration  on  the  bathing 
beach  of  Lake  Michigan. 

Though  inspired  solely  by  race  prejudice,  the 
Omaha  riots  developed  certain  disquieting  phases 
which  did  not  escape  Wood's  observation.  There 
was  no  industrial  battle  being  waged,  but  disorder 
having  broken  loose,  radicals  of  the  city  sought  to 
foment  a  continuation  and  extension  of  the  trouble. 
Wood  discovered  that  the  Reds  were  on  the  spot 
supplying  liquor  and  appealing  to  the  worst  ele 
ment  with  inflammatory  speeches.  The  Reds  were 
ready  to  convert  a  race  riot  into  a  political  riot. 

If  it  bad  been  the  Administration's  plan  to  keep 
Wood  in  the  background  where  the  people  of  the 
country  would  forget  him,  that  plan  was  cracking. 
From  coast  to  coast  he  had  been  applauded  for  his 
constructive  and  effective  means  of  aiding  the 
returning  soldiers.  His  success  in  stamping  out 
the  flame  of  anarchy  in  Omaha  had  a  bracing 
effect  on  the  whole  country  which  had  already 
begun  to  grow  nervous  under  repeated  mutinies 


The  Champion  of  Law  and  Order     £13 

against  law  and  order.  Nor  did  the  leading 
educational  institutions  of  the  country  seem  to 
approve  the  Administration's  course,  for  they  be 
gan  to  shower  General  Wood  with  academic 
honours.  His  Alma  Mater,  Harvard,  had  con 
ferred  on  him  an  LL.  D.  degree  in  1899.  Williams 
College  had  bestowed  on  him  a  similar  honour  in 
1902,  and  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  in  1903. 
Between  1916  and  1919  honorary  LL.  D.  degrees 
were  given  General  Wood  by  Princeton,  University 
of  the  South,  University  of  Michigan,  Union  Col 
lege,  Wesleyan  and  George  Washington  universi 
ties,  while  Norwich  University  and  Pennsylvania 
Military  College  bestowed  on  him  the  degree  of 
"Doctor  of  Military  Science." 

May  we  quote  the  official  citation  by  Princeton 
University,  the  great  institution  formerly  presided 
over  by  Woodrow  Wilson,  accompanying  the  pres 
entation  of  the  honorary  LL.  D.  degree  to  Gen 
eral  Wood. 


Doctor  of  Laws — Leonard  Wood,  awarded  the  Medal 
of  Honour  by  Congress  for  his  daring  and  determination 
in  most  difficult  and  dangerous  operations;  winning  new 
credit  in  the  Spanish  War;  Military  Governor  of  Cuba, 
doing  his  work  with  scrupulous  fairness  and  swift  de 
cision  until  the  island  was  safely  transferred  to  the  new 
Cuban  Republic;  for  five  years  on  arduous  duty  in  the 
Philippines;  Governor  of  Moro  Province;  later  Chief -of- 


214  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

Staff  and  now  commanding  the  Department  of  the 
East;  Major-General  in  the  United  States  Army.  In 
our  defenceless  state  he  has  sounded  the  reveille  to 
waken  a  slumbering  nation  from  its  dream  of  security, 
bidding  us  rise  and  take  our  place  like  men  to  save  our 
freedom  and  help  to  save  the  imperilled  freedom  of  the 
world. 


Months  before  the  war  closed  we  had  begun  to 
talk  about  the  reconstruction  and  its  problems. 
Some  of  our  inspired  sages  had  predicted  that  this 
would  be  a  different  and  a  better  world  as  soon  as 
autocracy  had  been  overthrown  and  the  world 
made  "safe  for  democracy."  They  had  told 
us  that  the  blood-bath  in  Europe  would  cleanse 
our  hearts  of  unselfishness,  and  once  Germany  was 
beaten,  peace  and  social  justice  would  reign  for 
evermore. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  radicals  of  the  country, 
who  were  fairly  eating  out  their  own  hearts  with 
class  hatred,  threatened  the  Government  with 
destruction  and  damnation,  applauded  every 
strike,  excused  every  act  of  violence  against  law 
and  order,  and  openly  advocated  the  Russian1 
order  of  things  as  a  panacea  for  all  governmental 
ills.  They  shouted  themselves  hoarse  over  the 
general  strike  in  Seattle,  gloated  over  the  trag 
edies  of  Chicago  and  Omaha  as  symptomatic  of 
the  Government's  inefficiency,  and  waited  im- 


The  Champion  of  Law  and  Order     215 

patiently  for  the  two  great  industrial  battles — the 
steel  and  the  coal  strikes,  toward  which  the  country 
was  being  permitted  to  drift.  The  forces  of  Capi 
tal  and  Labour  were  piling  up  arms  and  ammunition 
for  an  annihilating  war  which  would  cripple  in 
dustry  and  bring  discomfort  and  suffering  to 
millions. 

On  October  6th,  Governor  Goodrich  of  Indiana 
telephoned  General  Wood  asking  him  to  take 
charge  of  the  strike  situation  in  Gary,  Indiana, 
the  chief  centre  of  the  steel  labour  war.  Condi 
tions  in  the  city  had  become  so  difficult  that  the 
local  police  and  the  state  militia  were  unable  to 
assure  law  and  order.  In  defiance  of  the  local 
authorities,  mass  meetings  were  being  held  by 
strikers  addressed  by  men  who  advocated  direct 
action  in  all  labour  disputes. 

Wood  received  the  call  for  help  at  his  head 
quarters  in  East  Ohio  Street,  Chicago.  A  few 
minutes  later  army  trucks  packed  with  overseas 
veterans  were  speeding  from  Fort  Sheridan,  north 
of  Chicago,  to  the  steel  city  about  thirty  miles 
south  of  Chicago.  Colonel  Mapes  was  in  im 
mediate  command.  Five  hours  after  Governor 
Goodrich  had  telephoned,  the  soldiers  were  in 
Gary  with  Wood  in  general  charge. 

The  Gary  situation  was  so  loaded  with  mischief 
that  many  friends  of  the  General,  who  were  already 


216  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

pushing  him  to  the  forefront  as  Republican 
presidential  candidate,  charged  that  the  Admin 
istration  purposely  had  left  him  in  command  of  the 
Central  Department  in  order  that  he  should 
receive  the  onus  of  the  blame  if  there  should  be  any 
trouble  in  Gary.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe 
that  no  such  motive  existed.  General  Wood 
could  easily  have  evaded  going  to  Gary.  He 
voluntarily  assumed  charge  of  patrolling  the  steel 
strike  and  restoring  law  and  order  in  a  town  which 
last  October  probably  had  a  larger  proportion  of 
wild-eyed  radicals  than  any  other  community  in 
America. 

It  was  the  same  old  story.  Wood  walked  in,  and 
disorder  and  anarchy  walked  out.  There  was  no 
further  excitement  to  be  found  in  the  place. 
Gary,  Indiana,  had  figured  on  the  first  pages  of  all 
the  daily  papers  of  the  country  for  days  until  Wood 
arrived.  After  most  of  the  agitators  had  fled  and 
the  radical  leaders,  who  stayed,  had  been  arrested, 
Gary  became  a  city  of  no  news  which  meant  good 
news.  Law  and  order  were  restored  by  the  old 
Wood  method,  without  the  firing  of  a  shot.  The 
city  has  since  witnessed  a  tense  labour  struggle, 
but  strikers,  workers,  employers,  and  other  citi 
zens  of  Gary  have  walked  the  streets  in  security. 
Their  freedom,  guaranteed  under  the  Constitution, 
was  not  abridged,  and  they  were  relieved  from 


The  Champion  of  Law  and  Order     217 

daily  association  with  some  of  the  most  undesir 
able  elements  of  the  land.  Gary  was  the  nerve 
centre  of  the  great  labour  struggle  in  which  more 
than  200,000  men  were  involved.  With  1,200 
soldiers,  Wood  kept  the  place  peaceful. 

General  Wrood  kept  Gary  quiet  and  orderly 
without  arousing  either  antagonism  or  criticism 
from  the  labour  leaders  themselves.  One  of  the 
champions  of  the  strikers,  known  to  sympathize 
with  the  radical  wing  of  the  American  Federation 
of  Labour,  said: 

"I  doubt  whether  the  Gary  job  could  have 
been  done  better.  There  was  military  administra 
tion  at  Gary  that  was  somehow  coolly  and  shrewdly 
managed  from  the  top;  in  similar  situations,  it  has 
almost  always  happened  that  the  military  per 
mitted  itself  to  be  used,  was  outmaneuvered  or 
tricked  by  the  instruments  and  machinations  of 
the  anti-labour  crowd,  while  at  Gary  I  found  the 
feeling  on  both  sides  that  the  military  was  neu 
tral." 

General  Wood  and  his  men  were  strictly  neutral 
except  toward  the  prosperous  little  nest  of  Reds  in 
Gary.  Wood  cleaned  out  that  nest,  arrested  the 
revolutionary  fledglings  and  turned  them  over  to 
the  proper  authorities.  One  morning  the  news 
papers  published  a  story  stating  that  censorship 
had  been  established.  Another  press  report 


218  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

stated  that  Wood  had  made  a  personal  applica 
tion  to  the  War  Department  that  he  be  assigned 
to  duty  in  the  strike-stricken  city.  Both  tales 
were  without  any  foundation.  The  censorship 
story  probably  grew  out  of  the  fact  that  news 
papermen  were  warned  by  the  military  authorities 
not  to  publish  certain  reports  until  they  could  be 
verified.  The  story  of  Wood's  application  to  the 
War  Department  for  duty  at  Gary  is  almost  too 
absurd  to  pay  attention  to.  Gary  was  within  his 
military  jurisdiction.  He  might  have  asked  to  be 
relieved  from  duty  there.  He  would  no  more 
have  asked  to  be  placed  in  charge  there  than  a 
captain  of  a  company  would  ask  Washington  for 
permission  to  take  charge  of  his  own  company. 

At  the  request  of  Governor  John  J.  Cornwell  of 
West  Virginia,  General  Wood  sent  eight  hundred 
veterans  of  the  First  Division  to  West  Virginia  the 
last  of  October  to  prevent  any  disorders  in  the  coal 
strike.  No  trouble  occurred  and  the  troops  were 
never  required  to  use  their  weapons.  In  the  coal 
fields  there  was  probably  less  radicalism  among  the 
workers  than  in  Gary.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
coal  miners  were  in  a  bad  temper,  ready  for  a 
fight  at  any  moment.  They  were  used  to  hunting 
in  the  mountains.  They  were  expert  riflemen. 
Only  the  prompt  arrival  of  troops,  which  could 
assume  absolute  control,  assured  peace. 


The  Champion  of  Law  and  Order     219 

No  sign  of  lawlessness  of  any  sort  appeared  after 
Wood  assumed  charge.  Neither  employer  nor 
employee  could  charge  that  troops  were  taking 
sides  in  the  labour  fight.  In  Gary,  Wood  had  per 
mitted  the  strikers  to  hold  mass  meetings  in  halls 
as  long  as  there  was  no  seditious  talk  against  the 
Government.  The  right  of  assembly  and  free 
discussion  was  never  tampered  with.  The  same 
rule  prevailed  in  the  coal  districts. 

In  discussing  the  two  strikes,  Wood  declared 
that  he  had  found  the  overwhelming  majority  of 
the  workers  and  strikers  thoroughly  loyal.  Dis 
loyalty,  he  found,  was  confined  to  a  very  small 
number,  mostly  foreigners — anarchists  and  Bol 
shevists. 

Late  in  November,  after  he  had  ample  oppor 
tunities  to  study  the  coal,  and  the  steel  strike, 
General  Wood  said: 

"While  we  deprecate  and  denounce  the  alien 
un-American  influence  that  is  endeavouring  to 
poison  the  minds  of  our  labouring  men,  it  is 
imperative  that  we  should  satisfy  the  demands  of 
the  workers  for  a  fighting  chance  in  life  for  them 
selves  and  their  families.  This  applies  to  every 
labourer,  whether  he  works  with  his  hands  or  his 
brain,  whether  he  digs  coal  from  a  mine  or  plants 
Greek  roots  in  a  college. 

"No  industrious  man  or  woman,  equipped  to 


220  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

perform  satisfactorily  their  special  tasks,  should  be 
forced  to  worry  about  the  necessaries  and  comforts 
of  life.  Whenever,  or  wherever,  it  is  discovered 
that  a  worker  hasn't  a  fighting  chance  in  life  the 
conditions  should  be  changed  at  once. 

"That  was  a  sound  proposition  of  our  fore 
fathers  that  every  man  is  entitled  to  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  And  he  is  assured 
of  not  one  of  the  three  unless  his  labour  receives  a 
just  reward. 

"It  boils  down  to  this,  that  we  must  establish 
keen  sympathetic  relations  between  all  types  of 
men,  between  those  who  employ  and  those  who  are 
employed.  Every  man  should  be  a  property 
owner,  and  every  man  should  be  given  an  oppor 
tunity  to  become  such.  This  is,  of  course,  a 
generality,  but  the  problem  confronting  us  can  be 
solved  if  we  stick  to  our  American  faith  in  the 
efficacy  of  publicity.  What  we  need  are  facts  and 
figures. 

"Our  laws  are  made  by  public  opinion  and  public 
opinion  will  go  wrong  if  it  hasn't  the  facts.  What 
we've  got  to  stand  for  now  are  the  rights  of  prop 
erty,  the  domination  of  law,  and  the  maintenance  of 
public  order. 

"None  of  these  can  be  maintained  if  we  submit 
to  either  an  autocracy  of  wealth  or  an  autocracy  of 
labour.  We  must  insist  upon  democracy,  govern- 


The  Champion  of  Law  and  Order 

ment  by,  for,  and  of  all  the  people.  Through 
democracy,  the  connecting  link  between  the 
prosperity  of  the  employer  and  that  of  the  labourer 
must  be  conserved. 

"I  don't  think  that  our  labour  situation  is  so 
complicated  that  it  cannot  be  remedied  by  an 
application  of  the  Golden  Rule.  Why  can't  our 
employers  realize  that  their  employees  are  just  as 
essential  to  their  prosperity  as  for  instance  their 
customers.  If  employers  treated  their  employees 
with  something  of  the  consideration  that  they  treat 
their  customers  we'd  have  fewer  strikes. 

"There  ought  to  be,  it  seems  to  me,  a  way  in 
which  these  strikes  might  be  avoided.  This  can 
not  be  done  unless  the  public  knows  all  the  facts. 
The  labour  papers  present  only  one  side  of  the 
question  and  it  is  almost  impossible  for  the  public 
to  arrive  impartially  at  facts.  I  believe  that  if 
a  court  were  organized  with  the  power  to  hear  and 
investigate  the  claims  made  by  Labour  and  the 
counter  charges  made  by  Capital,  a  great  many  of 
these  industrial  disputes  could  be  avoided.  It 
is  my  idea  that  a  court  could  be  so  constituted  that 
it  would  have  the  power  to  call  upon  the  capital 
ists  to  reveal  their  books  and  that  it  could  send 
investigators  into  the  factories,  shops,  and  mills 
in  order  to  determine  if  the  claims  made  by  the 
employees  were  just.  This  court  could  then 


222  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

throw  the  pitiless  light  of  public  opinion  upon  the 
facts  and  could  point  out  definitely  who  was  in  the 
wrong,  so  that  public  opinion  could  be  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  question.  Indeed,  I  believe  we 
could  benefit  by  investigating  and  adopting  some 
of  the  practices  of  Australia  and  Canada  in  these 
matters.  An  industrial  court  of  investigation 
might  have  the  power  also  to  make  an  award  and 
to  enforce  its  decision.  We  hear  a  great  deal  about 
investigating  and  forcing  arbitration  in  interna 
tional  disputes  in  order  to  avoid  war.  Why  not 
have  such  a  court  duly  constituted  so  as  to  give 
the  public  the  facts  in  labour  controversies  so  as 
to  prevent  or  shorten  the  great  strikes  and  to 
force  the  party  who  is  in  the  wrong  to  settle  on  an 
equitable  basis  giving  the  "square  deal,"  as 
Theodore  Roosevelt  used  to  say,  to  both  or  all 
sides. 

"If  we  had  been  more  careful  of  the  foreigners 
whom  we  admitted  to  our  shores  during  the  years 
that  have  gone  by  I  do  not  believe  that  we  would 
have  so  much  industrial  strife. 

"I  should  like  to  see  the  great  organizations 
which  performed  such  valiant  and  patriotic  service 
during  the  war — the  Salvation  Army,  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.,  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  the  Jewish  Welfare  Board, 
the  Knights  of  Columbus,  and  similar  societies — • 
turn  their  energies  to  the  Americanization  of  the 


The  Champion  of  Law  and  Order 

foreigners.  They  are  splendidly  organized,  they 
have  the  spirit  of  unselfish  service,  and  they  could 
not  find  worthier  labour  at  this  time  than  that  of 
instilling  into  the  minds  of  our  immigrants  the  true 
principles  of  our  government. 

"But  all  such  work  must  be  done  sympathetic 
ally  and  intelligently,  and  while  we  should  protect 
the  immigrant  from  exploitation  as  well  as  supply 
him  with  the  proper  instruction,  there  must  be  no 
attitude  of  patronage  on  our  part.  Personally, 
I  favour  the  working  methods  of  the  Salvation 
Army  whose  members  meet  the  people  they  assist 
on  a  common  level  and  labour  with  them  as  well 
as  for  them." 

The  following  semi-official  statement  tells  what 
was  done  by  Wood  in  the  course  of  the  steel  strike 
at  Gary. 

In  the  specific  case  of  restoring  law  and  order  in 
Gary,  Indiana,  General  Wood,  upon  request  of  the 
Governor  of  Indiana,  ordered  a  detachment  of  troops 
to  proceed  to  that  city  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  life 
and  property  and  to  bring  the  place  back  to  its  normal 
life  so  far  as  order  was  concerned.  Accompanied  by 
his  staff  officers,  the  General  made  a  personal  investiga 
tion  of  the  situation  and  issued  a  proclamation  defining 
the  reasons  why  the  United  States  troops  occupied  the 
city,  setting  forth  therein  rules  and  regulations  for  the 
conduct  of  all  persons  in  Gary  during  the  time  of  mili 
tary  occupation.  This  proclamation  also  indicated 


The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

that  the  city  government,  as  established,  would  act  as 
an  agent  of  the  military  authorities.  After  this  state 
ment  had  been  put  in  writing  and  read  to  the  mayor 
of  Gary,  who  acquiesced,  it  was  released  to  the  local 
papers  and  to  the  papers  of  the  country  for  general 
publication.  Immediately  thereafter,  General  Wood 
sent  for  prominent  citizens  of  Gary,  for  strike  leaders 
and  organizers,  and  for  certain  persons  who  had  been 
identified  as  participants  in  a  parade  held  in  defiance 
of  the  mayor's  orders.  When  these  persons  came  to 
gether  the  proclamation  was  read  to  them  and  then 
General  Wood  said  that  the  troops  were  not  in  Gary 
in  the  interest  of  the  steel  corporation  or  of  the  strikers, 
but  were  there  solely  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining 
law  and  order. 

One  of  the  strikers  asked  General  Wood  what  action 
he  would  take  against  picketing.  The  General's  reply 
was  that  picketing  with  a  reasonable  number  of  men 
would  not  be  interfered  with  so  long  as  the  pickets  did 
not  offer  violence  against  any  persons;  that  the  function 
of  the  pickets,  as  he  saw  it,  was  to  speak  to  people, 
setting  forth  the  reasons  for  striking  and  to  try  to  get 
others  to  take  the  same  point  of  view  and  join  them  in 
their  action,  but  that  he  would  not  permit  any  violence 
or  threats  or  any  means  of  intimidation  to  be  employed 
by  the  pickets,  and  that  they  would  promptly  be  ar 
rested  if  they  disobeyed  the  regulation.  Strike  leaders 
notified  General  Wood  that  this  arrangement  was  fair 
and  perfectly  satisfactory  and  that  they  were  glad  to 
have  the  troops  in  control,  as  they  thought  the  strikers 
would  get  better  treatment  from  the  troops  than  they 
had  been  getting  from  the  local  civil  authorities. 

After  the  conference  the  men  who  had  assembled 


The  Champion  of  Law  and  Order 

were  dismissed,  and  General  Wood  sent  for  certain 
persons  who  had  been  reported  to  him  as  being  of  radical 
tendencies  and  having  attempted  to  incite  the  people 
to  riot.  This  little  congregation  heard  a  soldier's 
sermon.  They  were  told  that  if  they  attempted  any 
activities  along  radical  lines,  made  any  attempts  to 
incite  people  to  break  the  laws,  they  would  be  arrested 
at  once  and  brought  to  trial.  During  the  occupation 
of  Gary  by  the  military,  frequent  raids  were  made 
on  places  known  as  rendezvous  for  radical  agitators. 
Several  arrests  followed  and  many  papers  and  docu 
ments  of  various  kinds  of  redly  violent  nature  were 
confiscated;  and  with  them  there  were  taken  a  choice 
collection  of  firearms,  whiskey  stills,  and  other  things. 
All  of  these  raids  were  made  by  the  civil  authorities, 
backed,  however,  by  the  authority  of  the  military.  In 
Gary,  every  arrest  has  been  made  by  the  municipal 
police  except  in  cases  where  men  have  violated  the  law 
or  the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  military  in  the  im 
mediate  presence  of  United  States  troops.  In  Gary 
all  the  men  who  want  to  work  are  working  and  without 
interference.  It  is  not  within  the  province  nor  the 
inclination  of  the  military  authorities  to  drive  men  to 
work  who  don't  want  to  work  because  they  have  or 
think  they  have  a  grievance  against  their  employers. 
The  main  thing  is  that  order  has  been  established  in 
Gary  and  the  rights  of  every  resident  of  the  city  under 
the  law  have  been  safeguarded. 

The  career  of  Leonard  Wood  up  to  the  present 
moment  has  been  replete  with  big  deeds,  quietly, 
unostentatiously,  and  efficiently  performed.  There 


226  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

are  few  living  Americans  who  can  point  to  a  busier, 
more  useful  and  more  successful  record.  There  are 
none  who  can  point  to  an  administrative  and 
business  executive  record  which  even  approaches 
in  magnitude  his  Cuban  exploit.  And  Wood  was 
only  forty-one  when  he  left  Cuba,  having  then  re 
stored  the  country  from  a  national  wreck  to  a 
happy  and  prosperous  sovereign  state. 

Wood's  is  peculiarly  an  American  career.  His 
whole  life  has  been  spent  in  the  service  of  his  coun 
try.  America  has  always  been  his  chief  interest. 
And  he  has  hewn  his  own  career,  unaided,  from 
the  time  he  left  his  parents'  home  to  enter  college. 
Ours  is  still  a  land  of  self-made  men.  Wood 
entered  Harvard  University  penniless,  paying  for 
his  own  education.  He  entered  the  army  as  a 
civilian  and  climbed  to  the  top.  He  became 
Governor  of  Cuba  without  any  previous  adminis 
trative  training  and  made  himself  a  most  capable 
government  executive.  He  was  the  receiver  of 
bankrupt  Cuba,  directed  the  expenditure  of 
scores  of  millions  of  dollars,  liquidated  enormous 
debts,  pushed  through  to  successful  completion 
great  public  works,  and  he  left  Cuba  debt-free  with 
money  in  the  treasury. 

With  the  vision  of  a  true  statesman  he  foresaw 
Europe's  tragedy  and  our  unescapable  participa 
tion  in  the  great  war.  He  refused  to  remain  silent 


The  Champion  of  Law  and  Order 

and  inactive  when  silence  and  neutrality  were 
commanded  and  when  to  act  for  the  safety  of  the 
country  jeopardized  his  personal  advancement. 
His  profession  has  been  that  of  a  soldier  and  a 
government  executive,  but  he  has  yet  to  be  touched 
by  the  blight  of  militarism.  He  has  been  en 
trusted  by  his  country  with  many  important 
missions  and  he  has  performed  them  all  with 
distinction.  He  knows  America  as  few  men  do. 
In  a  recent  speech  delivered  in  an  Eastern  city 
Wood  said: 

"The  watchword  of  this  country  should  be 
'Steady'  and  the  slogan  should  be  'Law  and  Order.' 
Hold  on  to  the  things  that  made  us  what  we  are. 
Stand  for  government  under  the  Constitution. 
Stand  for  the  homely,  plain  things  which  really 
lie  at  the  foundation  of  our  government.  We 
want  to  stand  with  our  feet  squarely  on  the  earth, 
our  eyes  on  God,  our  ideals  high,  but  steady." 

To-day,  when  the  whole  world  is  jumpy  and 
nervous  after  the  superhuman  trials  of  the  late  war, 
one  would  have  to  ponder  long  and  earnestly 
before  finding  a  sounder  watchword  than  Wood's 
"Steady." 

In  closing  this  outline  of  Wood'f  life  no  more 
fitting  words  can  be  found  than  the  tribute  of  his 
friend  Theodore  Roosevelt,  who  said  of  him:  "He 
combined  in  a  very  high  degree  the  qualities  of 


228  The  Life  of  Leonard  Wood 

entire  manliness  with  entire  uprightness  and  clean 
liness  of  character.  It  was  a  pleasure  to  deal 
with  a  man  of  high  ideals,  who  scorned  everything 
mean  and  base,  and  who  also  possessed  those 
robust  and  hardy  qualities  of  body  and  mind  for 
the  lack  of  which  no  merely  negative  virtue  can 
ever  atone." 


THE   END 


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